Support Abortion? Not So Much, Says Pew

October 2, 2009 11:40 AM | | Comments (1)

Public opinion on abortion has shifted toward a less liberal attitude in the last year, leaving the country evenly divided on the issue and fewer liberal Democrats saying abortion is a critical issue, according to polling done in August by the Pew Research Center.

"The shift in opinion is broad-based, appearing in most demographic groups in the population," Pew said in its analysis of the polling data.

The polling shows a 4 percentage point rise in support over the last year for making abortion illegal in all or most cases, now holding 45 percent, while support for keeping it legal in almost all cases stands at 47 percent, Pew said. It also showed a 6 percentage point bump (to 41 percent) to make it more difficult to obtain an abortion, as well as a six-point boost in people (now at 65 percent) who think it would be good to reduce the number of abortions.

The number of people who identified abortion as a critical issue has declined by 26 percentage points - from 34 percent in March of 2006 to just 8 percent last month.

"In spite of the small shift toward opposition to legal abortion, the basic contours of the debate are still intact, with most major groups lining up on the same side of the issue as they have in the past," Pew said. "For example, most people who regularly attend religious services continue to come down in opposition to abortion, while the large majority of those who rarely or never attend religious services still support legal abortion."

The results are based on telephone interviews with 4,013 adults nationwide, conducted in two waves, one Aug. 11-17, and the other Aug. 20-27. The overall margin of error for the entire sample is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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Categories: Pew Research Center

Tags: Abortion

    Comments

  1. The people who justify abortion are similar to the people 150 years ago who justified slavery. It is murder, no question about it. To say otherwise, you are just fooling yourself into a morally acceptable gray area.

    Posted by: Field Marshal Author Profile Page | October 2, 2009 2:54 PM

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