Seems like there is some “tacking” going on in this article which argues that abortions are eating away at the demographic base of liberals/Democrats[1]. Normally, this sort of tacking goes on by pointing out the high African American abortion rates, ergo, the loss of reliable Democrats. Here is some abortion data by timing, age, race and religion. Some of the data confuses me, after all, it is true that “Born Again Christians” have lower abortion rates, but I can imagine a situation where women are non-religious, have an abortion, and later have a “Born Again” experience. This sort of mutability of religious or political affiliation make me a bit skeptical of extrapolating on this issue, since one’s self-perception might be contingent on having had an abortion (that is, a women who is a conservative Born Again Christian Republican has a ideological & religious epiphany due to an unplanned pregnancy).

[1] The polling firm’s founder brags about a close relationship to the late Ronald Reagan, so the firm has partisan origins from what I can gather. Also, the foundation of their argument is based on asking about abortions in the social circles of Republicans and Democrats. I suspect Republicans might know less about abortions that their friends & family have had simply because there is more social stigma attached to having one in that context. Why not just survey whether one has had an abortion? I suspect there would likely be under-reporting in this circumstance from women who avow socially conservative views.

Posted by razib at 05:56 PM