INVESTIGATING PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF ABORTION RIGHTS WHEN BIRTH DEFECTS ARE INVOLVED: A STATISTICAL REPORT
The purpose of this statistical study was to investigate public perceptions of the right of a pregnant woman to have an abortion in circumstances wherein there is a strong chance of serious defect in the baby. The research question investigated in relation to the study purpose was as follows: How strong is public support for or opposition to the right of a pregnant woman to have an abortion in circumstances wherein there is a strong chance of serious defect in the baby?
The population under study is the non-institutionalized adult population of the United States in 2000. The study sample was selected by the National Opinion Research Center as a part of the ongoing conduct of the United States General Social Survey (GSS). The size of the GSS sample related to the data used in this paper was 1,517, of which 1,262 respondents expressed an opinion on the issue (National Opinion Research Center, 2004). These data were obtained from the Survey Documentation and Analysis Web site of the GSS (2004).
For use in this current study (which required a minimum sample size of 30), the first 60 respondents among the 1,262 respondents were selected as the sample for further investigation. Data also were obtained from the Survey Documentation and Analysis Web site of the GSS (2004) in relation to the sex of the 1,262 respondents expressing an opinion on the issue investigated in this current study.
The sample selected by the National Opinion Research Center for the GSS was a randomized sample designed to be representative of the national non-institutionalized population of the United States. The selection of the first 60 respondents among the 1,262 GSS respondents for use in this current study was a convenience sample. This convenience sample was selected to (a) satisfy the minimum sample size criterion and (b) limit the analysis ...