Support of Abortion Is Linked to Lower Endorsement of Anti-Black Racism

• In Event: 40820 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Reproductive Justice

Abstract

Activists against legal abortion have argued that supporting legal abortion is associated with genocidal intentions towards Black Americans. This claim—while not necessarily widely agreed with—has legal and cultural weight in the United States. But is this claim true? In order to assess this claim, I investigate whether national probability data show that being in support of legal abortion is associated with anti-Black racism. I find no evidence of such a relationship. On the contrary, I find robust evidence that those who are most likely to agree that abortion should be legal in all cases are less likely to hold anti-Black racist views. I interpret this finding as evidence against the claim that those who support legal abortion have genocidal intentions towards Black Americans.

Author

• Catherine J. Taylor, University of California-Santa Barbara