MAKING THE BREAK - POPULAR SENTIMENT TOWARD LEGALIZED ABORTION AMONG AMERICAN AND POLISH CATHOLIC LAITIES

This comparative analysis of the structure of Polish and American Cath olic laities' attitudes towards legalized abortion focuses on the dime nsions and factors which influence public opinion toward legalized abo rtion. Latent class models are used to analyze a set of six scenarios regarding approval/disapproval of legalized abortion; we find substant ial similarity in the structure of the two publics' opinions; Catholic s in Poland and the USA appear to either (1) disapprove of all six rea sons for legal abortion, (2) approve of all six reasons for legal abor tion, or (3) adopt an intermediate position in which they approve of t he three ethical/medical reasons for abortion, but disapprove of the t hree social reasons for abortion. Interestingly, we find no difference in the relative proportions of American and Polish Catholics who disa pprove of ethical/medical reasons for abortion (a relatively small min ority in each population), but Polish Catholics are much more likely t han American Catholics to have 'made the break' from the Church's teac hings; that is, to have adopted a position in direct opposition to the Church, one which approves of abortion for social reasons. Moreover, there appears to have been a significant increase in this approval bet ween 1992 and 1993; possibly a result of the central role of this issu e in the political debate of contemporary Poland. Using a latent legit model, we examine the differential influence of church attendance, co hort, and education on Polish and American Catholics' attitudes toward s abortion for social reasons.