About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

99 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 373 (2021-2022)
How Personal Beliefs and Identity Affect Bodily Autonomy Attitudes

handle is hein.journals/udetmr99 and id is 391 raw text is: How Personal Beliefs and Identity Affect Bodily Autonomy Attitudes ABIGAIL A. MATTHEWS & REBECCA J. KREITZER* Most U.S. adults support legal abortion.' While there has been some variation in the decades of public opinion polling on the issue, attitudes re- main stable over time, even if sensitive to question wording.2 When asked about the conditions under whicj people should be able to obtain an abortion, over half of survey respondents indicate that abortion should be available in most situations.3 Despite the strong and steady support for a person's right to make reproductive choices, state legislatures, state courts, and federal courts have substantially restricted access to abortion in the past two dec- ades.4 If autonomy is an individual's ability to make choices and exercise con- trol over their lives,5 abortion is the quintessential bodily autonomy issue. With relatively stable support for abortion, we wondered how support for autonomy varied across specific abortion conditions, and even to other areas of bodily autonomy. What are the limits to Americans' support for self-de- termination? For example, is there support for adults having extramarital af- fairs? Does sexual autonomy extend to teenagers? And under what * Abigail Matthews, J.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Politi- cal Science at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Rebecca Kreitzer, Ph.D., is an associate pro- fessor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. We would like to thank Mackenzie Clark, Symposium Editor, and editors of the University of Detroit Mercy Law Review for their assistance with this article. Data for this study is archived at, Replication Data for How Personal Beliefs and Identity Affect Bodily Autonomy Atti- tudes , HARVARD DATAVERSE V1 (2022), https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/T3PK2Y. 1. Public Opinion on Abortion, PEw RscH. CTR. (May 6, 2021), https://www.pewfo- rum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion (showing 59% of respondents say abortion should be legal). 2. See Julianna Pacheco & Rebecca Kreitzer, Adolescent Determinants ofAbortion At- titudes, 80 PUB. OP. Q. 66 (2016). 3. Public Opinion on Abortion, supra note 2 (showing 34% of respondents said abor- tion should be legal in most circumstances and 25% indicated abortion should be available in all cases). 4. State Policy Trends 2021: The Worst Year for Abortion Rights in Almost Half a Century, GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE, https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/12/state-policy- trends-2021-worst-year-abortion-rights-almost-half-century (last visited Mar 12, 2022); See generally Rebecca J. Kreitzer, Politics and Morality in State Abortion Policy, 15 STATE POL. & POL'Y Q. 41 (2015). 5. Meghan Boone, The Autonomy Hierarchy, 22 TEX. J. ON C.L. & C.R. 1, 16 (2016); Bruce J. Winick, On Autonomy: Legal and Psychological Perspectives, 37 VtLL. L. REV. 1705, 1765 (1992).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most