Religion often shapes someone's view of abortion - but what about a woman's actual decision?

"Many factors can shape how someone views abortion - gender, age and education, to name a few. Around the world, however, religious belief is the most powerful predictor that someone will disapprove, as I document in my 2025 book, " Fetal Positions." Faith traditions' teachings about abortion vary - and there is diversity of opinions within faiths, too. On average, though, people who say that religion is important in their lives are far more likely to think abortion is morally wrong."

"The picture becomes even more complex when we consider not just how religious someone is but which tradition they belong to. Young American women in conservative Protestant churches are about half as likely to say they have aborted a premarital pregnancy than Catholics and mainline Protestants, regardless of how devout they are, according to my co-authored research. Other work has found similar differences among Christian groups."

Religious belief is the strongest global predictor of disapproval of abortion. Strong religiosity and involvement in religious communities correlate with moral opposition to abortion, yet do not uniformly lower the likelihood that an unmarried American woman will terminate her first pregnancy. Denominational affiliation matters: young conservative Protestant women report lower rates of aborting premarital pregnancies than Catholics and mainline Protestants. Limited data suggest unmarried young Jewish women have higher odds of obtaining abortions than conservative Protestants. Nuanced relationships between faith, tradition, and behavior should inform policy, advocacy, and public understanding.

Read at The Conversation