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Katie McCarron
Sociology

Jean Stockard, Mentor

Abortion and Homosexuality: A Statistical Analysis of Public Support for the Christian Coalition and the National Organization for Women

The Christian Coalition of America (CCA) and the National Organization for Women (NOW) are two highly-visible social movement organizations with opposing ideologies on the legitimacy of abortion and homosexuality. These views are framed around other beliefs that give life meaning and structure, and reflect values that characterize a relationship between personal and collective strategies for living. In order to explore the success of the organizations’ ideological framing techniques, this study examines the extent to which the general public adheres to the point of view of one organization or the other. Data for the study derive from the CCA and NOW web sites as well as the results of the 1996 and 1998 General Social Survey (GSS). Correlations between one’s view of abortion and homosexuality, and one’s outlook on life may help to explain the differences between the points of view of the public and the opinions expressed by these two social movement organizations.