Sean Ryan
Raymond Smith
Race and Ethnicity in American Politics
21 April 2015
Latinos and Public Health: Reproductive Health in Light of Morality
By Sean Ryan
Key Words: Latino, Hispanic, public health, abortion, Catholic, morality
Description: This issue brief discusses the relationship between American Latinos and
public health, especially relating to issues of morality and reproductive health. Relatively
high abortion rates among Latinos do not correlate with surveyed opinions on the issue
and expected decision-making trends based on religious identity, suggesting that other
factors are contributing to a disconnect between expectation and reality.
Key Points:

While American Latinos account for 16% of the US Population (2010) and only 40%
of Latinos surveyed support the legal right to abortion in all or most cases, Latinos
still account for 25% of all abortions.
 Over half of Latinos self-identify as members of the Catholic Church, and recently an
additional 18% belong to conservative Protestant sects given shifting religious
trends—all of these institutions tend to publicly condemn abortion and support
conservative political stances on social issues.
 Selective application of sexual morality, high poverty rates, and immigrant status as
is relates to increased difficulty in attaining adequate healthcare are all additional
factors which may contribute to the gap between moral expectations in Latino
abortion trends and the differing reality.
 Medical decision-making cannot be reduced to perceived trends in public opinion or
behavior suggested by institutional membership—the reality of human experience
is much more nuanced, and a variety of factors must be taken in consideration to
paint a more complete picture of Latinos and their relationship to public health.
Brief:
The American Latino relationship with public health presents a situation
complicated by both concerns of morality and a lack of realized opportunities for
healthcare coverage afforded to the Latino population. With historically strong Catholic
Church membership and religious identity, manifested in the Latino community’s
traditional support of socially conservative values, abortion remains a contentious issue for
the Latino population. Statistically, although Latinos only compose approximately 16% of
the total US population, Latino women account for about 25% of all abortions. This high
rate of abortion relative to population might seem contradictory given Latino opinions
gathered on the issue and the community’s Catholic roots. Firstly, as of 2013, only 40% of
Latinos surveyed thought that abortion should be legal in all or most cases— this number
is down from 43% in 2011. This decline is surprising considering that on other social
issues like same-sex marriage, Latinos seem to be following a national trend of increased
liberalization. Possible reasons for such strong anti-abortion sentiment would be the
Catholic Church’s consistent and persistent messaging of abortion as the murder of
innocent children, as well as strong rhetoric against the contraception that could have
prevented pregnancy in the first place. Catholics see abortion as a matter of life and
death—a cause more fundamental than that of same-sex marriage, for example (this might
account in part for the differing trends in Latino opinion among social issues).
While Catholic Church membership remains strong, other factors that might affect
morality are beginning to enter the picture. According to studies conducted in 2014, while
the likelihood of Latinos being born Catholic is still considerably high (55%), the Latino
community has in more recent years experienced a high level of religious diversification,
represented in the about 22% of Latinos identifying as Protestants and the about 18%
identifying as “religious non-affiliates.” Even still, most conservative Protestant sects
consider abortion gravely sinful, and it’s highly unlikely that non-religious women account
for all instances of Latino abortion. In fact, a study found that conservative Protestant
Latinos were less likely to waver from their churches’ doctrinal teachings than Catholic
Latinos because of the broader evangelical subculture in which Protestant Latinos are
situated. Many evangelical Christian establishment figures, like mega-Church pastors, for
example, put very public and determined pressure on their faithful to take conservative
political stances on social issues. In the broader discussion on Latinos and public health,
this all begs a fundamental question: what is causing this disconnect between religious
identity, moral expectancy, and reproductive decision-making?
In practice, the presence of other, perhaps more overpowering factors may play
into Latina women’s decisions to terminate their pregnancies. High poverty rates among
Latinos (23.5% lived below the poverty line in 2013) might result in some women
recognizing their financial inability to support a child. On the issue of Church morality, a
study found that American Catholics, in general, tend to apply, in practice, issues of sexual
morality more selectively than other moral issues. On a broader scope, undocumented
Latino immigrants face legal barriers in acquiring adequate and financially feasible
healthcare. Latino immigrants make up approximately 80% of America’s total
undocumented immigrant population of 11.2 million (2010). Of those undocumented
immigrants approximately 57% are uninsured, a figure that remained fairly constant over
seven years. Language barriers, also, can also make navigating intricate insurance policies
and medical systems more difficult. Without healthcare insurance, costs of pre-natal
healthcare and the medical costs associated with subsequently raising a child might seem
insurmountable. Even among documented Latino immigrants, healthcare coverage
numbers remain low. Only half of Latino immigrant workers are offered healthcare
insurance by their employers (compared to 87% of non-Latino white workers) because
Latino workers often work in blue collar industries in which employers are much less likely
to offer healthcare benefits. The American immigrant population is suffering greatly, and
the prospective of raising a child under such unstable conditions might seem irrational or
even impossible to some.
In considering medical decision-making, especially on highly personal and
politically charged issues like abortion, our conclusions cannot be reduced to the very black
and white data suggested by polls or point blank religious doctrine to which many people
adhere; human experience assumes a highly nuanced, much greyer tint. In the case of
Latinos and public health, factors like immigration status, changing trends in religious
associations, and the industries in which folks work all contribute to paint a much broader
picture of how American Latinos interact with medical systems. As more Latinos become
documented, citizenship numbers in their communities increase, and Latino poverty levels
hopefully continue to decline, American Latinos’ interaction with public health systems will
likely take place on a more formalized scale, allowing for increased access to governmental
financial support and subsidized family and reproductive healthcare.
Works Cited
Bartkowski, John P. "Faith, Race‐Ethnicity, and Public Policy Preferences: Religious Schemas and
Abortion Attitudes Among US Latinos." Faith, Race‐Ethnicity, and Public Policy Preferences:
Religious Schemas and Abortion Attitudes Among US Latinos. Journal for the Scientific Study
of Religion, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
"Chapter 9: Social and Political Views." Religion Public Life Project. Pew Research Centers, 07 May
2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
"Fact Sheet: Induced Abortion." Induced Abortion in the United States. Guttmacher Institute, July
2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
"Health Coverage for the Hispanic Population Today and Under the Affordable Care
Act." Medicaid and the Uninsured. Kaiser Family Foundation, Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Krogstad, Jens Manuel. "Hispanics Only Group to See Its Poverty Rate Decline and Incomes
Rise." Fact Tank. Pew Research Center, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
"The Shifting Religious Identity of Latinos in the United States." Religion Public Life Project. Pew
Research Centers, 07 May 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Wallace, Steven P., Jacqueline Torres, Tabashir Sadegh-Nobari, and Nadereh Pourat.
"Undocumented Immigrants and Health Care Reform: Final Report to the Commonwealth
Fund." UCLA Center for Policy Research, 31 Aug. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Zong, Jie, and Jeanne Batalova. "Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration
in the United States." Migration Information Source. Migration Policy Institute, 31 Jan. 2013.
Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Relevant Websites
Migration Policy Institute: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health: http://latinainstitute.org/
Latino Millennials: Conservative on Abortion, Wide Support for Contraception:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-millennials-are-more-conservativeabortion-n330921
Millennials Will Change Abortion Conservatism: Column:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/03/23/abortion-generationdemographics-choice-life-column/24900705/