WVS Webinar on June 27: Understanding Global Attitudes Toward Abortion: Insights from the World Values Survey
Welcome to the World Values Survey Association's webinar series. In these monthly sessions, we invite scholars from various disciplines who utilize WVS survey data, either alone or in combination with other datasets, to share their latest findings and insights. The webinars will explore a wide range of topics measured through the time-series WVS surveys, covering analysis of both substantive issues and methodological perspectives. Learn more about the forthcoming webinars here.
In this webinar, our guest speaker, Amy Adamczyk from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, explores global public opinion on abortion. Drawing on survey data from over 200,000 individuals in 88 countries participating in the World Values Survey, she examines how support for abortion varies across societies and over time. The study finds that national differences in abortion attitudes are shaped not only by individual characteristics but also by broader societal factors such as religion, gender inequality, and levels of development. While global support for abortion has generally increased, the talk highlights surprising national trends, including declining support in China, possibly linked to the legacy of the one-child policy. These findings underscore the value of cross-national survey data in understanding how public opinion on moral issues evolves in diverse cultural and political contexts.
Understanding Global Attitudes Toward Abortion: Insights from the World Values Survey
Why do abortion attitudes vary so dramatically across countries? Drawing on data from over 200,000 individuals in 88 nations participating in the World Values Survey, this talk explores the global patterns and correlates of public opinion about abortion. The analysis presented stems from my recent book, Fetal Positions: Understanding Cross-National Public Opinion about Abortion. Drawing the first book-length treatment of this topic. Using multilevel models, I show that variation in abortion support is associated with national levels of religious importance, Catholic concentration, economic and educational development, democracy, and gender inequality. Importantly, these country-level differences persist even after accounting for individual-level characteristics, underscoring the powerful influence of national context in shaping attitudes about abortion. The second part of the talk focuses on how abortion attitudes have shifted over time, with particular attention to China. While many countries have seen increases in the perceived justification of abortion, China stands out for its decline in abortion support. This trend contrasts with rising tolerance for other attitudinally sensitive issues in China, such as homosexuality and prostitution. The decline in abortion justification appears tied to the legacy of China’s one-child policy and broader demographic trends. As fertility rates have declined, abortion may have come to seem less justified, particularly as rates naturally declined in neighboring countries. These findings highlight the unique role that longitudinal, cross-national WVS data play in revealing both global trends and culturally specific dynamics in global opinion about abortion.
Dr. Amy Adamczyk is Professor of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Programs of Doctoral Study at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author of Fetal Positions: Understanding Cross-National Public Opinion about Abortion (Oxford University Press, 2025). She is also the coauthor of Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation, a finalist for Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year Award, and the author of Cross-National Public Opinion about Homosexuality: Examining Attitudes across the Globe, which received the 2018 Outstanding Book Award from the International Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Dr. Adamczyk has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, and her research has been supported by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Global Religion Research Initiative. Her work has been featured in major media outlets including CNN, BBC, NPR, ABC, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, PBS, The Huffington Post, Journey TV, The Muslim Times, and The Christian Century.
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