Gender role and religion as predictors of attitude toward abortion in Croatia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and the United States

Since socialism's decline, abortion has become a divisive political issue in East Central Europe, just as it is in the United States. Questionnaires administered to college students in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and the United States between 1991 and 1994 assessed the importance of religious identification, degree of religious feelings and participation, desired number of children, and gender role attitudes as predictors of approval of abortion for reasons of personal choice. Multiple regression indicated that these variables best predicted level of approval of abortion in Slovenia. The strong link between gender role attitude and abortion approval that emerged in the Slovene 1993 data is discussed in relation to the changing social and political contexts.