A new study from Kinsey Institute and Indiana University researchers and their colleagues looks at American attitudes toward issues of responsibility and punishment for illegal abortion. The study used an online survey with responses from 2,489 English and Spanish-speaking US adults, using quota-based sampling.
Respondents were asked if they thought abortion should be legal or illegal under certain circumstances; If abortion were illegal, should punishments be suffered for participating or aiding an illegal abortion; and, which actors in the abortion should punished. The researchers offered a 5-point scale including an “unsure” option – this allowed them to see how people attitudes varied according to different conditions surrounding an illegal abortion.
Illegality
Both the Pew Research Center (2022) and Gallup (2022) have been tracking US attitudes towards abortion over decades, and their findings consistently show that more people believe abortion should be legal some of the time than believe it should be illegal all or some of the time. Part of the purpose of this study was to assess how endorsement of illegal abortions differs across different circumstances. And which circumstances do people endorse the most and the least?
Respondents were asked to consider 17 different abortion circumstances and indicate if they should be illegal. The highest endorsed conditions were when the baby is a different gender than the parents desired and the woman is more than 12 weeks (3 months) pregnant. These findings are consistent with both existing state-level legislation restricting abortion around gestational age and previous research that shows people endorse legal abortion less frequently later in the pregnancy. However, in the United States, an overwhelming majority of abortions (more than 88%) occur within the first 12 weeks (Guttmacher, 2019), and gender selection does not seem to be a significant factor in why women seek abortions.
Circumstances receiving a middle mean endorsement for being illegal were when the woman has had a previous abortion, when she is unmarried and does not want to marry, and when the family has very low income and cannot afford any more children. The circumstances that received the lowest endorsement for being illegal were when there is a strong chance of serious defect in the fetus, the woman’s health is endangered by the pregnancy, and if she became pregnant due to sexual assault.
The overall findings reflect the current public disagreement over abortion restriction we see playing out across America. The plurality of people in the study did not support abortion being illegal or were unsure for most circumstances described. However, over a third of survey respondents indicated abortion should be illegal in many of the circumstances listed, suggesting that a sizable proportion of people in the US do believe that abortion should be restricted and criminalized.
Responsibility
Survey respondents were asked if they would assign responsibility for an illegal abortion to the following people:
- Pregnant woman seeking an illegal abortion
- Healthcare providers performing an abortion
- The individual who impregnated the pregnant person
- Anyone who provided information or assistance to the person seeking abortion
- Parents of a minor involved in an abortion
Respondents in the study assigned the most responsibility to the pregnant woman and the healthcare provider, followed by the man involved in the pregnancy, and then the least responsibility to any informants/aides and the parents of a minor involved in an abortion.
This suggests new bounty-style laws which target those who provide information or help to anyone seeking an abortion do not align with how the public assigns responsibility for illegal abortions.
This article is part of a series sharing research by Kinsey Institute researchers and their colleagues on a variety of factors affecting the public perception of abortion in the United States.
Study & References:
Kristen N. Jozkowski et al. (In review). Abortion stigma: Attitudes toward abortion responsibility, illegal abortion, and perceived punishments of “illegal abortion.”
Gallup. (2022). Abortion. Accessed September 30, 2022. https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx
Guttmacher Institute (2019). Induced abortion in the United States. Accessed September 30, 2022. https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states
Pew Research Center. (2022). Public Opinion on Abortion. Accessed September 30, 2022. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/
Additional Resources:
Brandon L. Crawford, Kristen N. Jozkowski, Lucrecia Mena-Meléndez, Ronna C. Turner. (2023). An exploratory examination of attitudes toward illegal abortion in the U.S. through endorsement of various punishments. Contraception, 2023, 109952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2023.109952.
Crawford, B. L., Jozkowski, K. N., Simmons, M. K., Willis, M., LaRoche, K. L., Turner, R. C., & Lo, W.J. (2021). Attitudes and Rationales Regarding Fetal Development-Based Bans. Social Science Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/03623319.2021.1975481
Crawford, B. L., LaRoche, K.J. & Jozkowski, K.N. (2022). Examining Abortion Attitudes in the Context of Gestational Age. Online advance of print. Social Science Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13157
Jozkowski, K. N., Crawford, B. L., & Hunt, M. E. (2018). Complexity in attitudes toward abortion access: results from two studies. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 15(4), 464-482. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0322-4
Jozkowski, K.N., Crawford, B.L., & Willis, M. (2021). Abortion Complexity Scores from 1972–2018: A Cross-Sectional Time-Series Analysis Using GSS Data. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 18, 13-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-020-00439-9