Planned Parenthood, an American nonprofit organization which provides reproductive healthcare, has been under intense scrutiny since the release of a video showing a medical director from the organization discussing the harvesting of fetal tissue. The Center for Medical Progress, the group which released the video, claimed the video demonstrated that Planned Parenthood profited from selling the body parts of aborted fetuses, an act which is illegal in the United States. This prompted a wide array of responses, including several investigations conducted by the federal government. Whether or not this particular claim is legitimate, the controversy has brought attention to the organization and the issue of abortion in general, inviting a sociological imagination to examine the peculiar controversy.
To give a historical perspective to the conversation, most will turn to the Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade which occurred in 1973 and declared state laws which prohibited abortion and certain restrictions and regulations on abortion (dependent on the trimester) unconstitutional. While in some cases, Supreme Court decisions seem to lead public opinion, there has been relatively little change in beliefs about abortion over time since the 1970s, as demonstrated by Gallup’s survey data from the last forty years.
Likewise, data from the past twenty years shows the fluctuation in the proportion of Americans which identify as “pro-choice” or “pro-life”. Both numbers are consistently very close to 50% and both opinions have, at times, been the majority (though “pro-choice” is more frequently a slightly more popular opinion).
Few other issues so evenly divide the country without a clear trend or significant difference over this time scale, with extremely strong and emotional responses on both sides. From comments comparing abortion to slavery by popular presidential candidates and legislatives attempts to defund Planned Parenthood to extreme acts of anti-abortion terrorism, it becomes evident that those who feel strongly “pro-life” view abortion through a different frame than the many supporters of Planned Parenthood. For some, it seems that abortion violates a taboo, a norm so deeply held that even considering it is upsetting. While there are not currently extreme legal or social sanctions incurred, many pro-life individuals feel that there should be. This is based on the value of preserving human life (of course, this hinges on the social construction of what a human life is). For others, the values of bodily autonomy and women’s rights dictate that there should be not legal sanctions on abortion. Many pro-choice advocates seek to eliminate social stigma associated with receiving an abortion, rather than elevating it to the status of a taboo. Why is it that American attitudes, stemming from these values and norms, diverge so totally on this issue and show virtually no signs of changing?
One theory for this strong divide could be the issue of gender and sexism. Abortion is very regularly regarded by pro-choice advocates as an issue of women’s rights. Restrictions on abortion function as an institutional mechanism to restrict women’s life chances in numerous ways and relegate them to the role of “mother” (though the role of “mother” is evolving over time in America to allow for greater acceptance of working mothers). Additionally, restricting access to abortion affects poor women, who do not have the same access to transportation to a clinic or funds for the procedure, to a much greater degree than wealthy women. Due to the systematic exclusion of women from positions of political power in the United States (women currently hold 18.5% of congressional positions, 10% of gubernatorial positions, and 12% of mayoral positions in the 100 largest American cities), political discourse surrounding all issues, including abortion, is predominated by men. However, examining public opinion, there is only a small gender gap in opinions on abortion, with 54% of women and 46% of men identifying as pro-choice in the most recent Gallup survey. Though issues of gender are extremely relevant in this discussion, the stark split in opinion cannot be explained simply through a difference between men and women.
When examining public opinion on abortion, political affiliation is a much stronger predictor than gender. While 68% of Democratic respondents identified as pro-choice in 2015, only 31% of Republicans did. High levels of political polarization, therefore, correlate with the polarization of public opinion on abortion.
It is no coincidence that the GOP is also more closely associated with evangelical Christianity than the Democratic party, as much of the rhetoric surrounding anti-abortion beliefs stems from values and language associated with the religion. As a secondary social institution, religion is an agent of socialization and contributes greatly to the development of values, norms, and socially constructed definitions (including relevant concepts such as “personhood”). Data collected from the Pew Research Center demonstrate significant differences in opinion on whether or not abortion is morally wrong between different religious groups, with those unaffiliated with any religion having the lowest amount of moral opposition to abortion.
Of course, there are many more complex facets to this issue which cannot be adequately explained in a short blog post. Abortion remains a highly divisive issue even over forty years after Roe v Wade and this is unlikely to change in the near future.
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