A recent Gallup poll has found that a majority of Americans — 55% — now discover as “pro-choice” within the abortion rights debate, the very best level in 27 years.
Gallup present in 1995 that 56% of Americans considered themselves pro-choice — supporting the fitting to have an abortion. After that and until the most recent poll, the proportion fluctuated from 45% to 50%.
Lydia Saad, Gallup’s director for U.S. social research, attributed the rise in support for abortion rights to the fears that Roe v. Wade could also be gutted within the wake of the leak of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion that argued against the 50-year-old ruling that established the fitting.
“The prospect of the Supreme Court overturning the case that established women’s right to hunt an abortion has clearly jolted a segment of Americans into identifying with the pro-choice side of the problem and expressing more unequivocal support for abortion being legal,” Saad wrote within the Gallup report.
The rise was driven by Democrats. Their identification as pro-choice rose from 70% to 88%, in response to the poll.
Identification as “pro-choice” slightly than “pro-life” also increased by 9 percentage points to 61% amongst women, by 12 points to 67% amongst adults ages 18 to 34, and by 9 points to 58% amongst adults ages 35 to 54.
There was no significant change amongst Republicans, independents, men or older Americans, Gallup found.
Amongst other findings, 39% of Americans identified as pro-life, the bottom percentage since 1996. And support for abortion being broadly legal increased 7 percentage points over the past 12 months amongst political independents — but not amongst Republicans or Americans older than 55, in response to the poll.
Gallup conducted its telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,007 adults over three weeks, starting May 2, the day Politico published Alito’s draft opinion. A final Supreme Court decision may very well be issued inside weeks.
Other recent polls have also found majority support for a right to abortion, though numbers vary.
A Wall Street Journal poll found that greater than two-thirds of Americans need to uphold Roe v. Wade, and most favor access to legal abortion for any reason. The Journal called the outcomes a “four-decade evolution” within the nation’s viewpoint on abortion rights.
The poll, also taken after the leak of Alito’s draft opinion, was conducted with the nonpartisan National Opinion Research Center on the University of Chicago. It was released Thursday.
The survey found that 68% of those polled said they wouldn’t prefer to see the court completely overturn Roe.
Nearly all of respondents, 57%, said someone should have the opportunity to acquire a legal abortion for any reason — the very best percentage since NORC began asking the query every few years starting in 1977, the Journal noted.
An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released in mid-May found that 64% of Americans opposed overturning Roe v. Wade (compared with 58% within the Gallup poll).
In all of the polls, support for abortion declined because the length of the pregnancy increased.
Take a look at the full Gallup poll report here.
The total NPR/PBS/Marist poll results can be found here. Read more concerning the Wall Street Journal/NORC here.
