Pro-choice/pro-elección versus pro-life/pro-vida: Examining abortion identity terms across English and Spanish in the United States

Abstract

Objective: We examine how a sample of English- and Spanish-speaking U.S. adults define the terms pro-life/pro-vida and pro-choice/pro-elección and explore whether definitions differ by language and/or ethnicity. Methods: We asked a sample of 1504 English- and Spanish-speaking U.S. adults to define the terms pro-choice/pro-elección and pro-life/pro-vida in an open-ended format. We used content and thematic analysis to examine congruence and discordance between how English and Spanish speakers, as well as Latinx and non-Latinx participants, understand these terms. Results: The terms largely appeared to hold common and canonical understandings, but we identified important differences across language and cultural/ethnic groups. For example, Latinx participants opted out of defining the terms more often than non-Latinx participants, and respondents to the Spanish survey had higher rates of uncertainty about and misunderstanding of the terms than respondents to the English version. Conclusions: Our findings suggest language-related variability in understandings of the terms pro-choice/pro-elección and pro-life/pro-vida that could have implications for multilingual and cross-cultural polling on abortion.