Gender and Abortion Attitudes: Religiosity as a Suppressor Variable

Despite the interest-group perspective that women should be more likely than men to support legal abortion, much research finds that women and men hold similar views on this issue. This null relationship has puzzled scholars of abortion attitudes. In an attempt to shed light on this relationship, this paper argues that gender differences in religiosity help explain the lack of a gender difference in abortion attitudes, with religiosity acting as a suppressor variable for the theoretically expected relationship between gender and support for legal abortion. Data from the 2012 General Social Survey support the hypothesis that the expected gender difference in support for legal abortion emerges when religiosity is controlled in multivariate analysis. This result indicates that religiosity is indeed suppressing women’s greater support for legal abortion, as anticipated by the interest-group perspective. Final remarks outline directions for future research suggested by the analysis.