Gallup Annual Polling of American Sentiment on Abortion

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Highlights

 

48% identify as pro-choice, 48% as pro-life

 

50% Think Abortion should be legal under some conditions

18% Think legal under none

29% Legal under all

 

By a Five-percentage-point margin, 48% to 43%, Americans believe abortion is wrong from a moral perspective

 

The result is that 43% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all (29%) or most (14%) circumstances, while a majority of 53% say it should be legal in only a few (35%) or no circumstances (18%)

 

http://news.gallup.com/poll/235445/abortion-attitudes-remain-closely-divided.aspx

[Nathanael D. Striker]

How am I not surprised about this result? I mean, the US is a large country with a mixture of different cultures and perspectives, after all. I don't think this is an issue that is going to be settled at all, especially considering the trends that Gallup present. And Winter, could you be so kind and put the methodology in the post, at least the margin of error so people don't have to go to the bottom of the link to find it?

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

How am I not surprised about this result? I mean, the US is a large country with a mixture of different cultures and perspectives, after all. I don't think this is an issue that is going to be settled at all, especially considering the trends that Gallup present. And Winter, could you be so kind and put the methodology in the post, at least the margin of error so people don't have to go to the bottom of the link to find it?

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted May 1-10, 2018, with a random sample of 1,024 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

 

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70% cellphone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

 

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It's interesting since it's the one social issue that has shifted right or stayed constant over the years. Most others (except recently immigration) have moved left

[vla1ne]

i'd call myself pro life, i don't think abortions should happen, and would prefer for my spouse to not have one. but i still support the right for abortions under most, if not all circumstances, whether or not i approve. i think these kinds of answers could twist the statistics greatly, since they could be honestly read from either end of the spectrum. also, how did you get the numbers for the final post of your first paragraph, because at the moment, it looks like you mixed the 2 48%'s with the bottom 3 answers, which seems like it wouldn't be a productive way of finding said result.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

i'd call myself pro life, i don't think abortions should happen, and would prefer for my spouse to not have one. but i still support the right for abortions under most, if not all circumstances, whether or not i approve. i think these kinds of answers could twist the statistics greatly, since they could be honestly read from either end of the spectrum. also, how did you get the numbers for the final post of your first paragraph, because at the moment, it looks like you mixed the 2 48%'s with the bottom 3 answers, which seems like it wouldn't be a productive way of finding said result.

I didn't. Gallup pressed the people who were hedging and they broke in favor of in rare cases over in most cases

 

The 50% that was "under circumstances" broke 35% for people like me, and 14% for people like you mostly

 

They're doing a 6 part polling on it, with gender and age break downs too. It'll be interesting to see those stats as well as stats on race

[SkaterTheDJWolf]

So it's pretty evenly split, leaning a bit against it. I'm not surprised. From what I've learned and heard about, quite a few people are kinda afraid of "new" things and messing around with the human body. Given what we're messing around with here, it's obviously going to be hotly debated. And then the moral standpoint gets thrown in and with all the complications... I would have expected an even split if I followed the issue closely. And conservativism has resurged in recent years as a reaction to liberalism, adding more momentum.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

More polling:

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' support for the legality of abortion varies sharply when they are asked to evaluate it on a trimester basis, which is consistent with the pattern Gallup has found for more than 20 years. Six in 10 U.S. adults think abortion should generally be legal in the first three months of pregnancy. However, support drops by about half, to 28%, for abortions conducted in the second three months, and by half again, to 13%, in the final three months.

 

Current abortion attitudes, from Gallup's May 1-10 Values and Beliefs poll, are similar to the prior update, in 2012, as well as to Gallup's first measure of this question, in 1996.

 

Men and women have similar support for abortion by trimester. However, as seen in the table at the end of this report, support differs by age, education level and party identification. Young adults, college-educated adults and Democrats are more accepting than their counterparts of abortions in the first and second trimesters, while the differences are slighter with respect to third-trimester abortions.

 

Americans Back Medically Motivated Abortions in First Trimester

 

As Gallup reported earlier this week, the vast majority of Americans want abortion to be legally available in all or certain circumstances, even while, in answer to a separate question, they are evenly divided at 48% each in identifying their overall position as "pro-choice" or "pro-life."

 

But Americans' views on the issue are even more complicated than that. Support for elective abortion depends on the specific reason a woman seeks the procedure. And that, in turn, varies by whether it occurs early or late in the pregnancy.

 

Gallup examines these distinctions in the new poll by repeating an experiment first conducted 15 years ago. Half of respondents were asked whether abortion should be legal for each of several reasons during the first trimester of pregnancy. The other half were asked about the same reasons in the third trimester. The situations (including a new one this year focusing on Down syndrome) are:

 

when the woman's life is endangered

when the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest

when the child would be born with a life-threatening illness

when the child would be born mentally disabled

when the child would be born with Down syndrome

when the woman does not want the child for any reason

The most widely accepted reason for performing abortions, with little difference in support depending on the timing, is when the woman's life is endangered: 83% think this should be legal in the first trimester and 75% in the third. Majorities also think abortion should be legal in both trimesters if done because the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, although support falls from 77% in the first trimester to barely half (52%) in the third.

 

Abortions done because the child would be born with medical problems -- either a life-threatening illness or a mental disability -- receive majority support when done in the first trimester, but less than majority support when occurring in the third.

 

Americans are divided about terminating a pregnancy in the first trimester when Down syndrome is detected, with 49% in favor; but support drops to 29% for abortions done for this reason in the third trimester. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identify Down syndrome as "the most common chromosomal disorder," affecting about one in every 700 babies born in the U.S.

 

Less than half of Americans support abortions conducted in the first or the third trimester when the woman doesn't want the child "for any reason," although there is a sizable falloff in support for this from the first trimester (45%) to the third (20%).

 

 

 

As with overall support for abortion by trimester, some demographic differences are also evident in these attitudes in the expected direction by age and party ID, in terms of both first- and third-trimester abortions.

 

Women and men have similar abortion views in most of the circumstances, but men are more supportive when it comes to aborting in the first trimester when the child would be born mentally disabled (62% of men vs. 51% of women say this should be legal in the first trimester), or when the child would be born with Down syndrome (56% vs. 44%).

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Less than half of Americans support abortions conducted in the first or the third trimester when the woman doesn't want the child "for any reason," although there is a sizable falloff in support for this from the first trimester (45%) to the third (20%).