Three years to the date since the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade with its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, recent polls show a majority of Americans continue to support legal abortion in most circumstances, even as the issue remains highly divisive.
About 63% of Americans believe abortion should be legal, while 36% think the medical practice should be illegal, according to a Pew Research Center survey released this month. Support for abortion experienced a slight uptick in the past three years, up from 61% in March and April 2022 before Dobbs.
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Public opinion is generally split when religious affiliation or party identification is taken into account.
For instance, 73% of white evangelical Protestants say abortion should be illegal, and 86% of religiously unaffiliated Americans say it should be legal. The partisan divide is also significant, with 57% of Republicans saying abortion should be illegal and 85% of Democrats saying it should be legal.
Meanwhile, the gender gap on abortion has reached a historic high. About 61% of women identify as pro-abortion-rights, compared to 41% of men, per a recent Gallup poll. Men are far more likely than women to identify as anti-abortion (54% to 32%).
Overall, the pro-abortion-rights segment dropped three points from 2024 to 51% and the anti-abortion segment rose two points from last year to 43%.
The gender gap similarly remains wide when asked about the morality and legality of abortion. Roughly 57% of women say abortion is morally acceptable, compared to 40% of men. Approximately 56% of women say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 41% of men say the same.
Gallup attributes the historically wide gender gap to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, before which men’s and women’s views on abortion were much closer.
By contrast, Pew found men and women were separated by three points when asked about their support for legal abortion.
A separate survey conducted by Democratic pollster Navigator Research shows a tight gender gap, with 61% of women and 56% of men in support of legal abortion in most or all circumstances. More broadly, nearly three-fifths (59%) of respondents back legal abortion, and almost two-fifths (37%) oppose it.
The polling comes as several Republican-led states continue to ban abortion at various stages of pregnancy. Republicans began introducing such laws following the overturning of Roe.
At least 23 states have laws on the books protecting unborn children in the first trimester of pregnancy, according to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
LEGAL WARS BREW AS POST-DOBBS ABORTION BATTLE ENTERS A NEW PHASE
“The tragic reality of abortions increasing since the Dobbs decision must serve as a wake-up call to the nation,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a Monday statement.
There are over 1 million abortions that occur in the United States annually, the Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates. Between 2020 and 2023, abortions increased by 11%.