Controversy Across Communities: The Role of Race in the Drive to Restrict Teen Abortions in California

Abstract:     
Multiple times over the course of the last decade, many attempts have been made to pass an abortion parental notification law via ballot initiative in California. While all said attempts thus far has failed, supporters of the initiative persist due to the issue's undying controversy. This paper looks at how the question of race figures into the breakdown of support and opposition for more restrictive abortion laws, and considers economic inequality, religion, cultural traditions and geographic factors for each major racial group. It also makes use of both quantitative (pre-election polling, Census data, and election returns) and qualitative (in-depth interviews asking subjects of various racial backgrounds their perspectives on religious and social questions) data, and predicts future trends as to where the issue is headed based on immigration and public opinion.

working papers series