Dimensions and clusters of abortion legal attitudes: A cross-national analysis of diverse nations

The literature on abortion attitudes displays a clear dualism. Cross-national studies conceptualize these attitudes as unidimensional (higher vs lower tolerance). But country case-studies indicate that attitudes are more complicated than what a continuous (higher/lower) or categorical (pro-choice vs pro-life) differentiation may suggest. Cross-national studies thus likely understate the complexity of abortion views. Utilizing a unique cross-national database and confirmatory factor analysis, cluster analysis, and multivariate regressions, we fill this void. In our sample of 23 diverse nations, we find that respondents are more supportive when the mother's health is in danger and during earlier gestational stages, and they are less likely to punish the woman than the provider when it is illegal. We also show that women, better educated, richer, and more liberal people are more likely to support abortion across different dimensions in the cross-national context. These relationships are largely similar across different legal environments. Finally, we show that attitudes related to the various legal dimensions of abortion are best characterized as multi-dimensional.