Just-word beliefs and community-level abortion stigma: An exploratory survey

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate whether belief in a just world is associated with community-level abortion stigma. Study design: From December 2020 to June 2021, we conducted a national U.S. survey of 911 adults using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Survey respondents completed both the Community-Level Abortion Stigma Scale and Global Belief in a Just World Scale. We used linear regression to evaluate the association between justworld beliefs, demographic characteristics, and community-level abortion stigma. Results: The mean Global Belief in a Just World Scale score was 25.8. The mean Community-Level Abortion Stigma Scale score was 2.6. The strength of just-world beliefs (beta = 0.7), male gender (beta = 4.1), a history of a previous pregnancy (beta = 3.1), post college education (beta = 2.8), and strength of religious beliefs (beta = 0.3) were associated with higher community-level abortion stigma. Asian race was associated with lower communitylevel abortion stigma (beta = -7.2).Conclusions: After controlling for demographic characteristics, strong just-world beliefs were associated with higher community-level abortion stigma. Implications: Understanding just-world beliefs may provide a potential target for stigma-reduction strategies.