Live Poster Session: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/92472344504
Sarah Albert
Sarah Albert ’23 is a double major in Latin American Studies with a concentration in Government and Studio Arts at Wesleyan University. She is taking QAC201 to further develop her skills in data analysis and the R language.
Abstract:
As a long-held key issue amongst the Christian Right, abortion has become an increasingly prevalent topic in Republican party politics and U.S. political discourse more broadly (Wilson, 2020). Several studies exist that have concluded relationships between party affiliation or religious affiliation and support for abortion legality; however, there has been no absolute conclusion about the association between abortion opinion and individuals’ opinions towards government spending. This study assesses the relationship between abortion attitudes, which are measured as level of agreement with “Pro-choice” and “Pro-life” categories, and opinions of government spending on childcare, education, health, and welfare. Bivariate data analysis revealed significant positive associations between higher levels of Pro-choice agreement and each of the 4 spending categories. According to multivariate analysis, the relationship between higher levels of pro-choice agreement and increased likelihood to support increases in these government spending categories is still significant when controlling for political party affiliation. This data concludes that while political party is associated with the relationship between abortion views and opinions on government spending, there is still a significant, positive relationship independent of political party between higher levels of pro-choice agreement and individuals’ desire to see increases in government childcare, education, health, and welfare spending.