RELIGIOUS DETERMINANTS OF STATE ABORTION POLICY

Objective. The research explores the impact of Roman Catholic and cons ervative Protestant churches on state abortion policy. Methods. Data a re state measures of membership in pro-life churches, abortion policie s, interest group membership, public opinion toward abortion, and othe r factors that previous research suggests may be relevant to abortion policy. Results. Religion is a significant factor in abortion policy, but not in simple ways. The impact of conservative Protestants is indi rect, through public opinion: states with many evangelical Protestants have more people with pro-life attitudes. In contrast, the impact of Catholics is both direct and indirect: there is a direct pro-life impa ct, that is not mediated by public opinion, which reflects the capacit y to lobby state governments, and an indirect pro-choice impact throug h provoking larger state memberships in the National Abortion Rights A ction League in states with many Catholics. Conclusions. While there i s one Roman Catholic church, with a diverse membership but unified lea dership and doctrine on the abortion issue, there are many conservativ e Protestant churches with no unified leadership. The authors suggest that these structural differences account for the different ways conse rvative Protestants and Roman Catholics influence state abortion polic y.