Among the most divisive issues in America today is the issue of abortion. If one were to judge by news coverage alone, one would assume that the nation is divided into two camps, pro-abortion and anti-abortion (the terms "pro-abortion" and "anti-abortion" will be used here, rather than the misleading terms of "pro-choice" and "pro-life"). In fact, these two camps represent only the extremes of the argument, and the great majority of opinion lies somewhere in the middle, with a wide spectrum of opinion favoring at the same time both some restrictions on the procedure and some acceptance of it (Babbie & Halley, 1994; pp. 49-51).
In recent years, some researchers have come to see abortion as merely a sub-issue contained within the wider issues of gender equality and traditional family values (e.g., Dworkin, 1983; Ginsburg, 1989; Luker, 1984). Some researchers suggest that women's abortion attitudes, like other political issues, reflect traditional divisions in society (Plutzer, 1988). Others argue that women's abortion attitudes are explained by degrees of religious involvement that shape definitions of family, sexuality, and motherhood (Wilcox, 1990). A variation of this perspective has concluded that church attendance, not affiliation, is the primary determinant of women's abortion sentiments (Rossi & Sitaraman, 1988).
These different views are contained within the "female dependency thesis" (Ginsburg, 1989), which holds that women's abortion attitudes are embedded within conflicting definitions of family, sexuality, and motherhood. An early proponent of this view, Dworkin (1983) holds that women's political views are a function of their relation to family versus wage labor: Women whose lives are centered around the role of wife and mother rather than (or, with minimal attachments to) work are thought to hold positions that promote the continuance of traditional family and gender values. Thus, the more women depend on trad...