- Browse/Search Program
Search
Program Calendar
Browse By Day
Browse By Time
Browse By Person
Browse By Session Type
- Navigation and Settings Menu
Personal Schedule
Sign In
- Participant Resources
Deadlines
Policies
Updating Your Submission
Accessible Presentation
FAQs
- Social Media Menu
Twitter
Facebook
- Information Menu
Search Tips
About Annual Meeting
Racial Logics of Abortion: Racial Variations in Support for Abortion in the 2014 GSS
Sun, August 12, 8:30 to 9:30am, Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Floor: Level 5, Salon GAbstract
This research will model racial differences in the effects of religion/ideology and socioeconomic status on the abortion attitudes of Black and white women using the 2014 General Social Survey. Research has shown that racial differences in abortion attitudes have declined over time, and Black women are currently more supportive of legal abortion than white women. Research on racial differences in abortion attitudes often explains these differences by controlling for dominant predictors of abortion attitudes (e.g. religiosity, education, socioeconomic status, etc.); however, this research assumes that these predictors operate in the same way across races and presupposes near identical salience or priority of each predictor in the formation abortion attitudes between races. This research tests and challenges that assumption. By comparing how race moderates the effects of religiosity and socioeconomic status on abortion attitudes, I test hypotheses that the effect of socioeconomic status on abortion attitudes is stronger for Black women than white women and the effect of religiosity on abortion attitudes is stronger for white women than Black women. This work aims to analyze how Black women and white women have different conceptions of abortion. That is, Black women are more likely to conceive of abortion as a practical consideration than an ideological one (Dugger 1991) while white women are more likely to conceive of abortion as an ideological issue. This argument is grounded in a Reproductive Justice (RJ) perspective, which goes beyond abortion rights to discuss larger patterns of racial inequality in access reproductive services, access to economic and legal resources, and the ability to determine one’s own reproduction with dignity.