Giving Compass' Take:
- Pew Research Center provides insight into American's widely varied opinions on abortion: 61% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 38% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
- What are the implications of public opinion on abortion for reproductive health initiatives?
- Learn about the demographics of women who are getting abortions in America.
What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
Search our Guide to Good
Start searching for your way to change the world.
As of 2019, public support for legal abortion remains as high as it has been in two decades of polling. Currently, 61% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 38% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Though abortion is a divisive issue, more than half of U.S. adults take a non-absolutist position, saying that in most – but not all – cases, abortion should be legal (34%) or illegal (26%). Fewer take the position that in all cases abortion should be either legal (27%) or illegal (12%).
About three-quarters of white evangelical Protestants (77%) think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
By contrast, 83% of religiously unaffiliated Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do nearly two-thirds of black Protestants (64%), six-in-ten white mainline Protestants (60%) and a slim majority of Catholics (56%).
Read the full article about public opinion on abortion by Travis Mitchell at Pew Research Center.