The Journal of Politics

Table of Contents - August 1983 - Volume 45, Issue 03  

Research Notes

Predictors of Abortion Attitudes in the Federal Republic of Germany

Jerome S. Legge Jra1

a1 University of Georgia

Abstract

This article utilizes demographic, political and religious variables to predict attitudes toward abortion in the German Federal Republic. Discriminant analysis reveals that religious variables are the strongest predictors of attitudes toward abortion. Interestingly, it is not denomination but rather religiosity – measured by church attendance and the degree to which individuals feel the churches should be involved in politics – that best predicts abortion attitudes. Traditional political and social cleavage variables such as income, occupation and party identification are weak discriminators, while more value-relevant variables such as ideology, education and age discriminate well.