Gallup Poll on Abortion

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Gallup Latest on America's Abortion Opinion

Special Report - June 2, 2003
The country’s views on abortion have remained relatively steady over the last year—a new Gallup poll finds—with 42 percent of respondents saying that abortion should remain legal, but only in a few circumstances. On either extreme, 23 percent say that abortion should remain legal under any circumstance, while 19 percent feel it should be illegal in all circumstances. When asked under which circumstances they would support abortion, 82 percent of respondents said when the woman’s life is endangered, 72 percent in the case of rape or incest, 60 percent when the child would be born with a life-threatening illness, 50 percent when the child would be born mentally disabled, and 41 percent when the woman does not want the child for any reason. Each of these percentages dropped when applied to the third trimester.

In an apparent contradiction, while most Americans find some circumstance under which abortion should remain legal, a majority (53 percent) believes that abortion is morally wrong, while only 37 percent find it morally acceptable. This increase in moral opposition to abortion is up 8 percent from just two years ago when only 45 percent of respondents felt that abortion was morally wrong. Not surprisingly, there is a clear link between religious involvement and moral opposition to abortion. Seventy-eight percent of those who attend religious services weekly believe that abortion is morally wrong, while only 28 percent of those who seldom or never attend religious services feel the same. Women are also more likely to be morally opposed to abortion than men (56 to 49 percent respectively), as are those who are older, living in the East and identified as Republican. An earlier Gallup poll found a large majority (75 percent) of Americans opposed to partial-birth abortion while only 25 percent in support. This is significant as a partial-birth abortion ban continues its way through Congress.