Abortion Attitudes and the Underlying Mechanisms: Emotions and Political Views

IntroductionStigmatizing attitudes and beliefs, misconceptions, and stereotypes related to abortion and women who terminate their pregnancies are still relatively common. The current study investigated a series of factors that seem to shape these attitudes.MethodsData was collected in late 2020. The convenience sample consisted of 359 Romanian participants aged 18 to 60. We investigated pathogen, sexual, and moral disgust as potential predictors of abortion attitudes and the mediating role of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) in this relationship.ResultsThe results suggested that RWA fully mediated the relationship between the three domains of disgust and attitudes toward abortion. Also, RWA fully mediated the relationship between sexual and moral disgust and the participants' self-reported stigmatizing tendencies toward abortion. The only exception to this pattern was the relationship between pathogenic disgust and stigmatizing tendencies toward abortion, which RWA only partially mediated.ConclusionsAbortion attitudes are a complex concept, and political influence might play a crucial role in their development. RWA's role as a potential mediator between disgust sensitivity and abortion attitudes is in need of further research, in order to better understand the factors that shape individuals' opinions about abortion.Policy ImplicationsThis research is also relevant to public policies and political debates regarding abortion rights and safety for women, given that conservative initiatives aiming to restrict or ban abortion are happening in a growing number of countries, usually grounded in prejudice, misinformation, and vilification of those who have an abortion.