IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v383y2025ics0277953625007518.html

(Re)Conceptualizing abortion attitudes through the lens of Abortion Tolerance

Author

Listed:
  • Jozkowski, Kristen N.
  • Hawbaker, Amelia
  • Paiz, Jacqueline Y.
  • Crawford, Brandon L.
  • Turner, Ronna C.

Abstract

In this study we identified Abortion Tolerance, a construct related to attitude development we conceptualize as people accepting, allowing, or enduring the notion of abortion in theory and/or in practice, which is distinctly different than conceptualizations of solely abortion support or opposition. Using data from qualitative interviews (N = 170), we examined how US adults describe abortion, conceptualize abortion, and articulate their own attitudes toward abortion. We found tension in people's attitudes toward abortion as they concurrently conceive abortion as something that is both generally undesirable (often due to perceptions of ending a life), but also necessary and useful (often for the pregnant person) and that these attitudes manifested through a preference for parenting and adoption over abortion and the desire of abortion to be prevented and regulated, yet for the government to not be involved. We found that people experience a dilemma when contemplating abortion, particularly experiencing a tension between maternal and fetal prioritization, which is better sorted out via a continuum of tolerance than outright support or opposition.

Suggested Citation

  • Jozkowski, Kristen N. & Hawbaker, Amelia & Paiz, Jacqueline Y. & Crawford, Brandon L. & Turner, Ronna C., 2025. "(Re)Conceptualizing abortion attitudes through the lens of Abortion Tolerance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 383(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:383:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625007518
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118420
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625007518
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118420?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicole M. Deterding & Mary C. Waters, 2021. "Flexible Coding of In-depth Interviews: A Twenty-first-century Approach," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 50(2), pages 708-739, May.
    2. Kristen N. Jozkowski & Xiana Bueno & Kathryn LaRoche & Brandon L. Crawford & Ronna C. Turner & Wen‐Juo Lo, 2024. "Participant‐driven salient beliefs regarding abortion: Implications for abortion attitude measurement," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 105(2), pages 374-391, March.
    3. Goldblatt Hyatt, E & Wilpers, Abigail & Bahtiyar, Mert Ozan & Hu, Yunzhe & Leon-Martinez, Daisy & Chervenak, Frank A. & McCoyd, Judith L.M., 2024. ""I don't have a telephone to the fetus": Clinicians' conceptions of fetal patienthood in maternal-fetal surgery counseling," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 342(C).
    4. Martin, Lisa A. & Hassinger, Jane A. & Debbink, Michelle & Harris, Lisa H., 2017. "Dangertalk: Voices of abortion providers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 75-83.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mills, Lisa & Watermeyer, Jennifer, 2023. "A meta-ethnography on the experience and psychosocial implications of providing abortion care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    2. Ilana Shpaizman, 2025. "Guardians and Spenders in the Budgetary Process: More Than One Type of Relations," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 583-598, April.
    3. Martin, Elizabeth C., 2025. "Beyond past-due bills: The varieties of medical debt used to finance healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 386(C).
    4. Piehowski, Victoria, 2025. "Medicalizing violence: The institutional politics of trauma in Veterans Treatment Courts," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 380(C).
    5. Temitope Longe & Charles Needham, 2023. "A Qualitative Exploration of Effective Leadership Development Programs and Leadership Process on Succession Planning and Organizational Performance," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 14(4), pages 33-51, December.
    6. Julia Olson & Patricia Pinto da Silva, 2025. "Radical interdisciplinarity in scientific practice: placing social networks in marine and fisheries sciences," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 15(2), pages 310-329, June.
    7. Jinzhang Zhou, 2025. "The Everyday Professional Experiences of Homeroom Teachers in a Chinese Secondary School," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, September.
    8. Becker, Andréa & Hann, Lena R., 2021. "“It makes it more real”: Examining ambiguous fetal meanings in abortion care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    9. Lauren Ryan & Brendan Churchill & Leah Ruppanner, 2026. "The Gendered Flexibility Paradox and Remote-First Work: How Working Parents Reconcile Work and Care," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 40(2), pages 203-224, April.
    10. Alanna Stuart & Kim de Laat, 2025. "Bearing Psychic Weight and Accountability: Navigating Racism and Microaggressions in Creative Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 39(2), pages 361-379, April.
    11. Francesco Zecca & Saima Saima, 2025. "Pastoralism and women’s role in food security in the Ethiopian Somali region," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Veronica L. Horowitz & Sirat Kaur & Synøve N. Andersen & Jordan M. Hyatt, 2025. "A Shared Sorrow: Conceptualizing Mass Carceral Grief," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-23, September.
    13. Fern, Simon E., 2025. "Immigrant experiences of harm in sexual and reproductive healthcare in Spain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    14. Andaya, Elise & Campo-Engelstein, Lisa, 2021. "Conceptualizing Pain and Personhood in the Periviable Period: Perspectives from Reproductive Health and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Clinicians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    15. Yanina Kowszyk & Rajiv Maher & Frank Vanclay & Mariana Walter, 2026. "Moral management in the extractive industries during turbulent times: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    16. Marianne Kjelsvik & Ragnhild J. Tveit Sekse & Asgjerd Litleré Moi & Elin M. Aasen & Eva Gjengedal, 2018. "Walking on a tightrope—Caring for ambivalent women considering abortions in the first trimester," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(21-22), pages 4192-4202, November.
    17. Nicole Angotti & Brian Houle & Enid Schatz & Sanyu Mojola, 2025. "Unpacking the black box of latent class analysis using qualitative life history interviews: A data-linked explanatory approach examining sexual behavior in rural South Africa," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 53(13), pages 343-372.
    18. Diaz-Strong, Daysi Ximena, 2025. "Nested contexts of support: How the local context shapes school agents’ support of undocumented students," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    19. von Geldern, Will, 2025. "Evictions, legal counsel, and population health: A mixed methods study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 377(C).
    20. Géraldine Heilporn & Mourad Majdoub & Fatima Diab & Catherine Paré & Ayda Sadat Hejazian & Sawsen Lakhal & Christine Hamel, 2025. "Using Technology in Secondary Education to Support Engagement and Learning: Students’ Perspectives," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(4), pages 21582440251, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:383:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625007518. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.