Summary: Recent research shows that attitudes about abortion are increasingly intertwined with both religious identity and racial attitudes. People who score high on measures of racial resentment are significantly more likely to oppose legal abortion, regardless of their stated religious views or party identification. Conversely, religious conservatives and liberals with low racial resentment are more likely to support abortion rights than their peers who score higher on racial resentment.
Source: North Carolina State University
A new, nationally based study finds that public views on abortion are strongly connected to religious beliefs and attitudes about race.
This study provides the first clear empirical evidence that racial attitudes — specifically measured racial resentment — are closely associated with views on abortion rights, and that this relationship has grown stronger over the last decade.
“There has been historical work linking the pro-life movement to racial attitudes, but this analysis is the first to establish a robust, empirical connection between racial resentment and abortion attitudes,” says Steven Green, co‑author and professor of political science at North Carolina State University. “We also found that the strength of that relationship increased markedly in the past ten years.”
Racial resentment is a standardized scale commonly used in U.S. social science research to gauge attitudes toward Black people and perceptions of systemic racism. Higher scores indicate less acceptance of structural racial inequalities and a tendency to attribute racial disparities to individual factors rather than systemic causes.
Using two nationally representative 2020 surveys — the American National Election Study (ANES) and the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) American Values Survey — researchers analyzed responses about abortion, racial resentment, religious affiliation and practice, and other demographic and political variables.
The results show a remarkably consistent pattern: individuals with higher racial resentment scores are substantially more likely to say abortion should be illegal. That pattern holds across partisan lines and religious categories. For example, conservative Republicans who score low on racial resentment are much more likely to support abortion rights than conservative Republicans who score high on racial resentment. The same dynamic appears among religious liberals and other groups.
To assess change over time, the researchers examined ANES data stretching from 2000 through 2020. They found no statistically significant relationship between racial resentment and abortion attitudes from 2000 to 2008. That association emerged in 2012 and strengthened noticeably through 2016 and 2020, suggesting the link between racial attitudes and abortion views has intensified in the last decade.
The study does not claim that racial resentment fully explains abortion attitudes. Instead, it shows that racial attitudes are now a strong and independent predictor of abortion views for Americans broadly, alongside the enduring influence of religious belief. In particular, abortion attitudes remain distinctive for their strong religious determinants, supporting the conclusion that genuine religious convictions do underlie pro-life positions for many white evangelicals. At the same time, racial resentment is not uniquely correlated with evangelical views; rather, its association with abortion attitudes spans the population.
These findings are especially salient in the post-Dobbs environment. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision removed federal constitutional protection for abortion, increasing the importance of state-level politics and public opinion on access to reproductive care.
“Understanding how racial attitudes, religion, and abortion views intersect gives us a clearer lens for interpreting ongoing political debates — both nationally and at the state level,” Green says. Laurel Elder, corresponding author and professor of political science at Hartwick College, adds that the team plans to continue examining how these relationships evolve in the aftermath of Dobbs as part of a broader book project on public opinion about abortion in post‑Roe America.
About this neurotheology and abortion research news
Author: Matt Shipman
Source: North Carolina State University
Contact: Matt Shipman – North Carolina State University
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access. “Abortion, religion, and racial resentment: Unpacking the underpinnings of contemporary abortion attitudes” by Steven Green et al., published in Social Science Quarterly.
Abstract
Abortion, religion, and racial resentment: Unpacking the underpinnings of contemporary abortion attitudes
Background
For many Americans, especially white evangelicals, pro‑life positions are closely tied to religious beliefs about the sanctity of life. Some scholars have argued that evangelical opposition to abortion also reflects growing racial resentment as government policies and social changes advanced racial equality. This study examines those competing explanations.
Objectives
The research investigates how evangelical identity, racial attitudes, and views on the legality of abortion relate to one another, testing whether racial resentment helps explain evangelical opposition to abortion or whether racial attitudes operate more broadly across the public.
Methods
The analysis uses American National Election Studies (ANES) data from 2000–2020 and the 2020 PRRI American Values survey. These nationally representative data sets include measures of abortion attitudes, the standardized racial resentment scale, religious affiliation and practice, and demographic and political controls.
Results
The findings do not support the claim that racial attitudes are uniquely linked to the abortion views of white evangelicals. Instead, racial resentment is correlated with abortion attitudes across the population. At the same time, abortion views remain unusually influenced by religion, indicating that sincere religious convictions do play an important role in pro‑life beliefs among white evangelicals.
Conclusion
This study establishes a baseline understanding of how racial attitudes, evangelical identity, and abortion views related to one another just before the Dobbs decision. Because the relationship between these factors appears to be changing, continued research in the post‑Roe era will be important for tracking how public opinion and political alignments evolve.