Influence of woman’s circumstances and ideology on abortion acceptance

Abstract The impact of variables such as ideological profile or type of abortion on the acceptance of voluntary termination of pregnancy (VTP) has been extensively studied and supported. In contrast, the influence of the woman’s circumstances has received less attention. The aim of this study is analyze, in a community sample of Chilean adults, the effect of the ideological configuration of the participants (religious involvement and political identification with the right wing) and three woman’s circumstances requesting the abortion (socioeconomic status, marital status and the partner’s agreement) on the acceptance of VTP due to danger to the woman’s life, fetal non-viability, and rape. This study used two multivariate between-subject experimental design. The sample consists of 613 participants - mean age 37.14 years (SD = 15.30). The ideological profile of the participants is the variable with the greatest explanatory power, but its presence does not cancel out the effect of the contextual variables. Thus, ideologically conservative profiles are less accepting of abortion. The effect of contextual variables on greater acceptance of traumatic abortion when the woman is a precariuos situation is limited. However, when the mother is in a less unfavourable situation and her partner does not agree with the abortion, there is an effect towards less acceptance. The most important woman’s circumstances is the partner’s opinion. The implications of including the woman’s context in questioning strategies and the coercive implications of giving weight to the partner’s consent are discussed.