Abortion Less Likely Amongst Religious Women.

by Rachael Grant

A new study, conducted by Amy Adamczyk PhD, from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Jacob Felson of William Paterson University, has shown that religious women are far less likely to seek abortion than secular women.

The study discovered that contrary to popular opinion, the results were not because of pro-life attitudes of the religious women, but instead because they are far more likely to be sexually conservative.

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was used for the study, where sexual behaviour and pregnancy that occurs outside of marriage was measured against religious and denominational affiliation.

The conclusion was that religious women were far less likely to become pregnant outside of wedlock, and thus wouldn’t need to entertain the idea of abortion in the first place. It was also discovered that out of those who did fall pregnant, it was the religious women who were more likely to marry the father of the child, and thus continue with the pregnancy.

The authors of the study, which will be published in the March 2008 edition of the journal Social Science quarterly, stated that ‘religious influences on attitudes are much more powerful than religious influences on behaviour. While religion is the main reason for differences in abortion attitudes, religion is a relatively minor reason for differences in abortion behaviour’.

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