Abstract
Attitudes towards abortion play a significant historical and contemporary role in U.S. politics. Research has documented the influence of racist and sexist attitudes in Americans’ political opinions, yet the role of these attitudes has largely been absent in psychological research about abortion. We hypothesized that racism and sexism, originating from historically-rooted stereotypes about Black women’s sexuality and motherhood, would be related to abortion attitudes. In Study 1, we recruited three samples—Black (n = 401), Latinx (n = 316), and White (n = 343) individuals diverse in age, gender, and abortion identity—to complete an online survey assessing abortion attitudes, symbolic racism, modern sexism, and religiosity. Results were consistent with hypotheses: antipathy and resistance to the equality of African Americans (racism) or women (sexism) related to individuals’ negative abortion attitudes, above and beyond religiosity, in all three samples. In Study 2, we partially replicated these findings using data from the 2012 American National Election Studies (ANES). Moreover, we extended Study 1’s findings by demonstrating that racism and/or sexism predicted opposition to abortion while controlling for political ideology among White (n = 2,344) and Black (n = 500) individuals but not Latinx individuals (n = 318). These studies demonstrated that exclusionary ideologies (i.e., racist and sexist attitudes) relate to individuals’ abortion attitudes. These findings may assist researchers and policy makers with interpreting a more comprehensive picture of the racist and sexist attitudes that individuals possibly draw upon when responding to questions about abortion, including voting, answering polls, or supporting political candidates.
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Survey materials as seen by participants, data in CSV and SPSS format, and codebook are available at https://osf.io/6ukrq/.
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SPSS syntax is available via the OSF link above.
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Acknowledgements
Findings from this manuscript were presented at the 2022 American Association for Public Opinion Research Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. The authors thank Jake Nagasawa for his consultation about religious traditions in the United States.
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This study was funded by a grant from Indiana University awarded to Sara McClelland.
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Author contributions were as follows: (i) Conception and design (MRB, SIM, KNJ); (ii) Data collection (SIM); (iii) Data analysis and interpretation (MRB); (iv) Manuscript drafting and revising (MRB, SIM); (v) Approval of final version for submission (MRB, SIM, KNJ).
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Baker, M.R., McClelland, S.I. & Jozkowski, K.N. The Role of Racism and Sexism in Attitudes Towards Abortion Among White, Latinx, and Black Individuals. Sex Roles 87, 435–454 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01328-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01328-8