Causes and Consequences of Public Attitudes toward Abortion
Mark Ramsarran
Hum/114
03/18/2015
Corey Brunelle
Abortion has and still is one of the most concerning issues in the United States and the rest of the world. I choose this topic because it has been one of the oldest debates that take a toll on society and impacted young parents and their families. As you read you will find that abortion combine with race and skin color makes a bad combination. Most people talk about abortion and instantly jump to the conclusion that it’s a “African thing” but it is not it is a female thing and in my opinion I think that it is her and her sexual partner whom she have gotten pregnant for to make the choice weather to bring life or not which their choice will be to abort the fetus. Also this can go in a different direction where as black’s wont favor legalising abortion. According to Ted and Clyde (April 2003) “Even before the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade (1973), abortion has been an Important and divisive issue in American politics. The question of whether a woman has, or should have, the right to terminate a pregnancy intentionally has been a source of intense controversy for over a generation. The abortion issue has been what Amy Fried (1988) has termed a “condensational symbol,” involving questions of moral theology, human life, gender roles, and sexual morality. The issue has inspired marches and murder, and spawned a set of competing interest groups that have mobilized tens of millions of dollars a year to influence public opinion and voting behavior. It has confounded candidates, and puzzled pundits.” (p.1) According to Elaine and Myra (1986) “Abstract Public opinion surveys since 1965 find that black respondents are less in favor of legal abortion than white respondents. Using the 1982 NORC General Social Survey, we replicate and expand one of the few studies (Combs and Welch, 1982) that examined the structure and determinants of prochoice attitudes of blacks and whites. Our major findings are (1) the racial difference in prochoice attitude is as great in 1982 as in the 1970s, (2) contrary to the suggestion of Combs and Welch, the demographic and attitudinal determinants of abortion attitudes differ for blacks and for whites, and (3) for those respondents who differentiate their acceptance of legal abortion, the pattern of prochoice attitudes also differs by race.” (p.1)
References
Elaine, J. H., & Myra, M. F. (1986, summer 1986). “Race Differences in Abortion Attitudes”. Race Differences in Abortion Attitudes, 50(2), 193-207.
Ted, G. J., &