How Do Religious Views Impact Abortion Views

The goal of this study is to gain a better understanding of what women in their early 20’s are thinking about abortion and the different factors that influence a woman having an abortion. Also, this study is looking for a correlation between whether or not these women’s religious views are affecting their views on abortion. Another factor we are looking for in this study is how those women who have had abortions feel about abortion and how that personally affected their lives. To find answers to these components, this study surveys 30 women at a university to find out how their religious views affect their views on abortion. With this research we find that religious views do not necessarily impact abortion view, but commitment to those religious views does. Also, we see that women who have had abortions, have been affected by some kind of emotional distress. We also see that religious views do affect these women’s views of the different things that they would come into dealing with if they were in the position to have an abortion. HOW DO RELIGIOUS VIEWS IMPACT ABORTION VIEWS? Attitudes towards abortion are very controversial among today’s literature. There are many different approaches to the study on what impacts one’s decisions regarding abortion. There always seems to be a constant relationship between religious tendencies and abortion views. Research shows that there is a difference in views of abortion depending on the type of abortion. It seems that a person who identifies themselves as more associated with religious groups and being raised religiously come to be more opposing to abortion. On the other hand, people who don’t identify with a religious background and identify within a religious group are more liberal with their views on abortion. ABORTION IN RELATION TO RELIGIOUS GROUPS In a study by Hoffman and Johnson, evidence was found that Evangelicals and other groups have a widening gap that has developed significantly concerning abortions for elective reasons. Evangelicals have become stricter on their views of abortion for traumatic reasons when it was expected to see less opposition as well, but in a less definitive manner. While Catholics have steadily opposed elective abortions, Evangelicals have become more opposing to abortion for this reason (Hoffmann and Johnson 2005). Hoffmann and Johnson seem to believe that this rise in opposition may be due to the Supreme Court’s decision to not change the pronouncement of Roe v. Wade among other cultural factors. Abortion seems to be something that brings togetherness to steadily religious people. Research also shows that parental socialization within religious groups affects a person’s moral attitudes in a conservative way. The fact of belonging to the group is not a determining agent, but regular church attendance of a parent does have an effect. However, even stronger than the parent’s socialization is the socialization habits of the person in question. If the person has close ties within regular church attendance, this is an even stronger force (Scheepers, Te Grotenhius, and Van Der Silk 2002). Also in moral attitudes, education is a large factor. There is a correlation between higher education and more liberal views, and in contrast there is a correlation between less education and more conservative moral views. Authors Cochran, Chamlin, Beeghley, Harnden, and Blackwell (1996) also found proof of religious groups being influential on moral views, particularly regarding abortion, in relation to reference group theory. Leaders within these religious groups serve as significant others. According to reference group theory, religion meets all the criteria to be a very influential reference group. The more influential the reference group, the greater affect it has on your actions. The norms and roles within these religious groups unite the members to the group’s beliefs. This also ties into their application of socialization theory to religious groups. When you come into interaction with groups, you also learn to have the same emphasis on similar statuses among group members, agreement on values, and defining values among other aspects (Cochran et al 1996). In applying socialization theory it is found that interaction with people close to someone (i.e. Primary groups and significant others) are more influential on a person than informal associations. The results of these studies also confirmed that being affiliated with a religious group, including church attendance and strength of religious identity, there is a great effect on abortion views. Strong religious members are most likely to oppose legalized abortion. Another interesting find in this study is that it appears that one’s spouse’ religious affiliation is very much related to decisions on elective abortions, but seems to hold no significance on views of traumatic abortions. A study was conducted by Laurent Begue (2001) to determine how views of abortion differed depending on variations of why the abortion decision was being made. This study, using Catholics specifically, found that the individual attitudes were very much affected by the social identity of the person evaluating a person’s decision to have an abortion. This study found that when the person having the elective abortion was constrained by financial or other obligations, it was found more permissible than an elective of the abortion just for the sake of aborting. The evaluators, when faced with a situation where the person having an abortion was also identified as a Catholic was judged much harsher than one who was not Catholic (Begue 2001). Religious groups are a fundamental part of one’s view on abortion. All this research shows that the more you can identify with religious others close to you and your religious significant others, the more likely you are to be opposed to abortion. However, within this, the more dedicated to these religious groups you are, the greater the odds of opposition to abortion will be. There are also distinct differences in views on traumatic abortions in contrast to elective abortions. There is less research done on the distinction between these two different types and my research will further investigate feeling of traumatic verses elective views on abortion within religious and non religious groups. Also, these studies lacked information on these people’s actual knowledge of abortion to see how that relates to views on abortion. My research will also delve into that aspect on abortion attitudes especially among college students when their beliefs are being altered and are at the common age of when abortion procedures occur.