Abortion attitudes, gender, and policy context: An analysis of the World Values Survey

Objective: To explore whether attitudes toward abortion differ by respondent gender and the national abortion policy context.

Methods:  Data are drawn from the sixth wave of the World Values Survey, collected between 2010 and 2014.  The analytic sample comprises data from 67,146 respondents from fifty countries.  Abortion attitudes were scored on a ten-point Likert scale ranging from “never justifiable” to “always justifiable.” National abortion policy was classified using the Guttmacher Institute six-point classification and dichotomized into “liberal” and “restrictive” contexts.  Gender was self-reported.  We conducted linear regression modeling accounting for cluster effects by country to assess whether respondent gender and national abortion policy context were associated with abortion attitudes. Models controlled for age, education, marital status, and religiosity.

Results:  In unadjusted analyses, both female gender (B=0.075; p<0.001) and liberal abortion policy context (B=1.51, p<0.001) were associated with more accepting abortion attitudes.  In multivariable regression models, women had more supportive attitude scores than men (B=0.245, p<0.001).  Abortion attitude scores were also higher in liberal abortion policy contexts than restrictive contexts (B=0.625, p<0.001).  Age, educational attainment, marital status and religiosity were also significantly associated with abortion attitudes with younger, divorced, non-religious women having more liberal attitudes than their counterparts.

Conclusion: This preliminary work suggests that gender and policy context are significantly associated with differences in abortion attitudes in this multi-national sample. We are continuing to further characterize these associations and investigate the clustering attributable to country as well as implications for couples attitudes, partner negotiation, family planning decision-making and unintended pregnancy resolution.