GENERATIONAL CHANGES IN ATTITUDES TO ABORTION - A CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON

In this paper I examine generational changes in men and women's attitu des to abortion across nations and time. First, I use time-series data from British Social Attitudes and the General Social Survey of the Un ited States to track men and women's changing attitudes. In particular , I investigate whether change is due mainly to period effects or to c ohort replacement. I also compare the trajectory and pace of change in the two countries. Second, I use data from the International Social S urvey Programme to compare Anglo-American attitudes with those of four other nations (Ireland, Germany, Sweden, and Poland) that have very d ifferent abortion policies. Although gender differences in attitudes t o abortion are rare, generational differences tend to be conditioned o n gender. As predicted, post-pill cohorts of women adopt a more favour able stance than earlier cohorts. In Britain, over the last decade, wo men's attitudes have become more liberal far more rapidly than men's, resulting in a gender gap in the 1990s. Gender differences in generati onal effects are apparent in the six-nation comparison, even when reli gion is taken into account. It is argued that rising expectations conc erning reproductive control, together with generational succession and increasing secularization, will further increase endorsement of abort ion but is unlikely to eradicate policy dispute.