August 2023: Dr. Sara McClelland presents: “Abortion and deservingness: The role of psychological research in understanding abortion attitudes in the U.S.” as the 2023 Lynn Stuart Weiss Lecture, an annual lecture given at the APA convention in memory of Lynn Stuart Weiss, a promising scholar whose interests centered on the science and art of politics, with a focus on world law.

The role of everyday attitudes, beliefs, and emotions introduce a set of barriers that remain largely invisible, but deeply shape the environment around those who seek abortion care. In this talk, Dr. McClelland will focus on associations and stereotypes about women of color in the U.S. that continually shape how abortion is imagined and policed. She argues that racist ideologies, including cultural images like that of the “welfare queen,” are woven into the fabric of how abortion is imagined, assessed, and legislated. In her work, she traces the historical development of ideologies regarding women’s sexuality and how laws instruct a nation how to think about the trinity of sex education, contraception, and abortion.