Adolescent males' abortion attitudes: data from a national survey

Roughly 13% of a nationally representative sample of 1,880 15-19-year-old males approve of abortion in each of eight circumstances presented to them, while about 4% disapprove in every instance. The proportions agreeing that abortion is acceptable range as high as 85-90% if the pregnancy endangers the woman's health or results from rape. Any type of religious affiliation, especially religious fundamentalism, is related to weaker support for abortion; an even stronger correlate of abortion attitudes is the importance of religion to the respondent. Abortion attitudes vary little by race after other social background factors are controlled. Those with more liberal attitudes toward premarital sex and those who perceive that they would be upset if they became a father in the immediate future are particularly likely to express acceptance of abortion. Roughly 61% of adolescent males do not feel that it would be all right for a woman to have an abortion if her partner objects, indicating a possible "gender conflict of interest" over the abortion issue.