Norwegian Politics of Abortion: Perspectives, Arguments, and Values

Grid-group cultural theory is applied to an empirical analysis of five debates on abortion in the Norwegian Parliament between 1992 and 1996. Policy arguments concerning selective abortion and abortion in general are compared. In the cultural–theoretical literature, restrictive policy arguments towards abortion have been connected to the hierarchical cultural bias, whereas permissive policy arguments have been associated with egalitarian and individualistic worldviews. The empirical analysis, however, shows that there are various different connections between abortion policy arguments and cultural biases. The possibly contradictory situation that arises when parties switch between cultural biases is discussed, and the article concludes that grid-group cultural theory proves useful in relating the various abortion policy arguments to broader worldviews that transcend this particular policy issue.