(OPINION) A new poll from the nonpartisan polling firm Gallup finds that most Americans believe that legal abortion is “morally acceptable” for the first time, even though an overwhelming majority oppose abortions in the third trimester of pregnancy and most oppose abortion in the second trimester.
Gallup released a new survey about Americans’ views on abortion last week. While the polling company has inquired about Americans’ opinions on abortion annually for more than a quarter-century, this year’s polling results come as the U.S. Supreme Court could be poised to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
The survey was conducted between May 2 and May 22, which mostly overlaps with the days following the publication of a leaked draft opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health that suggests the court could soon overturn Roe. The poll is based on responses from 1,007 U.S. adults and holds an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
When asked if they viewed abortion as “morally acceptable,” most respondents (52%) answered in the affirmative for the first time in the poll’s history. A record low share of Americans (38%) characterized abortion as “morally wrong,” making this year’s poll the first conducted by Gallup to show more Americans viewing abortion as “morally acceptable” than “morally wrong.”
In an interview with The Christian Post, Michael New, a pro-life scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute and a professor at the Catholic University of America, attributed the finding to an increase in “moral acceptability of a range of issues that pertain to sexuality” and “sexual conduct.”
He cited “an increase in people who think that premarital sex is morally acceptable” and an increase in the number of people who believe “same-sex marriage is morally acceptable” as examples of this phenomenon. This year’s poll revealed that 55% of Americans identify as “pro-choice,” while 39% see themselves as “pro-life” on abortion.
The share of Americans identifying as pro-choice nearly matches the record high set in 1995 (56%) and marks a 6 percentage point jump from the 49% who described themselves as pro-choice last year. The percentage of Americans who reported a “pro-life” view on abortion dropped 8 percentage points from 47% between 2021 and 2022. READ MORE
