Study: 'The evidence strongly suggests that racial attitudes are closely intertwined with views on abortion'

North Carolina State University recently released a study that "provides the first empirical evidence of the strong relationship between racial attitudes and beliefs about abortion rights."

The study, according to a post on February 8, concluded that there is evidence that this relationship has gotten stronger recently. Racial resentment is a standardized scale that measures attitudes toward the Black population in the U.S. The higher the score, the less the person believes that there is systemic racism. The study showed that typically, those with a higher resentment score also score higher on wanting abortion to be illegal.

“There’s been plenty of historical analysis of the relationship between the pro-life movement and racial attitudes, but this is the first effort to demonstrate the clear, empirical relationship between racial attitudes and abortion attitudes,” said Steven Green, co-author of the study and a professor of political science at North Carolina State University. “And we found that the strength of this relationship has increased considerably in the past decade.”

The report stated that the study focused on the relationship between the evangelical opposition to abortion and racial resentment against government policies and societal shifts toward racial equality. 

The research involved data from the American National Election Study and the Public Religion Research Institute American Values Survey, both done in 2020. They included questions about attitudes toward abortion, racial resentment, religious beliefs and other related information.

The study showed that conservative Republicans who had low racial resentment scores were much more likely to support abortion rights. Data from 2000 to 2020 shows that the relationship between abortion and racial resentment was far less apparent from 2000 to 2008, but this picked up in 2012 and increased from 2016 to 2020.

"While religious beliefs certainly play a role in determining whether people think abortion should be legal, the evidence strongly suggests that racial attitudes are closely intertwined with views on abortion,” Green said. "Beliefs about abortion rights are closely tied to beliefs about racial justice issues. Understanding this relationship offers a lens through which to view the ongoing political debates about these issues on the national stage and in state legislatures across the country." 

In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that abortion was not a constitutional right, allowing states to create their own restrictions relating to abortion and medical care. The researchers look forward to exploring how the relationship between racial attitudes, religion and abortion will evolve in the post-Dobbs era.

Their ongoing book project, "Public Opinion on Abortion in Post-Roe America," seeks to delve deeper into these issues. The paper, titled "Abortion, religion, and racial resentment: Unpacking the underpinnings of contemporary abortion attitudes," was published in Social Science Quarterly. Co-authors of the paper include Melissa Deckman of the Public Religion Research Institute and Mary-Kate Lizotte of Augusta University.