Trends in public attitudes toward legal abortion were analyzed for 1972 and 1978. Data were drawn from seven independent probability samples (N = 10,652) of English-speaking persons 18 years of age or older living in noninstitutional arrangements within the continental United States. Attitudes were derived from responses to six items asking whether it should be possible for a pregnant woman to obtain a legal abortion under six different conditions. Guttman Scalogram Analysis revealed two predominant patterns; approval for all six reasons and approval only for the hard reasons (safeguarding the woman's health, preventing birth of a deformed child, or treating rape). Two major shifts were noted in the level of approval; a considerable increase in 1973 for each reason and a sharp decline in 1978 for all but woman's health and rape. These shifts paralleled the introduction of laws pertaining to abortion.
PIP: Data from the General Social Surveys (GSS), conducted between 1972-78 in the US, were analyzed to evaluate trends in abortion attitudes over this 7-year period. The GSS were conducted for the National Data Program for the Social Sciences during February, March, and April of each year. The data analyzed in this study pertained to attitudes toward abortion and selected background characteristics of the respondents who participated in the GSS. For each GSS, an independent sample was drawn of English-speaking persons 18 years of age or older living in noninstitutional arrangements within the continental US. The sample size for the 7 surveys ranged from 1484 to 1613, with a total of 1o,652 interviews completed in the 7 surveys. A standard questionnaire was used to gather the data through a structured interview. The data were gathered at the respondents' homes; the median length of the interview was 1 hour. A percentage distribution of abortion scores show concentration of respondents around 2 scores: 6 and 9. The single largest group of respondents had a score of 6, indicating approval of abortion for all 6 reasons -- mother's health, rape, child deformity, low income, unmarried, and does not want more children. The largest increments in this pattern of response occurred in 1973 when the percentage rose to 42.6% from 36.3% in 1972. This pattern of approval did not continue to rise after 1973, and began to decline in 1977, and declined sharply in 1978. Consequently, the percentage of respondents who thought abortion justifiable for all 6 reasons was lower in 1978 than in 1972. The 2nd largest group of respondents had a score of 9, indicating approval of abortion for hard reasons only, mother's health, rape, and child deformity. There was little change in this pattern of approval between 1972-77, but the proportion of respondents showing such approval increased by nearly 4% in 1978. There was a greater net change in attitudes toward abortion among women than among men during the 7-year period. The rate of disapproval for all 6 reasons declined among women while it remained stable among men. There was a greater decline among women in approval for all 6 reasons. The rate of approval for just the hard reasons increased more sharply in men bringing them up to par with women. Although blacks as a group disapproved of abortion more frequently than whites, they exhibited a greater change in attitudes over the 7-year period. The rate of disapproval for all 6 reasons among blacks in 1978 was less than half of what it was in 1972, while the same does not change for whites. Among those with less than a high school education, a sharp decline was noted in the level of disapproval for all 6 reasons along with a rise in approval for the hard reasons. Those with high school and college educations showed a decline in approval for all 6 reasons. With the exception of the group with no religious affiliation, all groups showed a decline in 1978 in the rate of approval for all 6 reasons.