Endorsement of abortion: the differential impact of social perspective on women and men

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore whether women’s and men’s endorsement of abortion is differentially influenced by perspective-taking. Methods: An experimental design was employed in which 145 university students (104 women, 41 men) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions and asked to make judgements regarding the advisability of abortion across diverse situations. Participants in the self-referent condition (n = 82; 56 women, 26 men) were asked to render judgements in reference to themselves, while those in the other-referent condition (n = 63; 48 women, 15 men) were asked to make judgements in reference to a generic ‘other’. Results: A significant interaction emerged between Sex and Referent Group. Specifically, referent-group membership had no impact on men’s endorsement of abortion, but did have a significant impact on women’s ratings whereby women were more endorsing of abortion for others than for themselves. Subsequent item analyses revealed that this pattern was evident for 6 of the 14 items. Conclusions: Given societal expectations regarding women’s and men’s appropriate parental roles, it is reasonable to speculate that gender differences would exist in the value attached to the parental role, and subsequently, in the choice made when the opportunity to become a parent versus termination of a pregnancy presents itself. Counsellors can use this information to maximise the extent to which they facilitate autonomous decision-making.

Keywords:

• Abortion
• gender differences
• perspective-taking
• endorsement
• counselling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.