Individuals stay divided on the query of abortion, however not all the time within the pro-choice/pro-life divide usually portrayed, a brand new ballot from the Pew Analysis Heart revealed Friday.
The nonpartisan group stated 61% of Individuals consider abortion needs to be authorized, normally (36%), or with both no exceptions (19%) or some exceptions (19%).
A complete of 37% of these surveyed consider abortion needs to be unlawful normally (27%), with out exception (8%), or in all circumstances with “some exceptions” (2%). Of those that say they oppose abortion, 33% would enable it if the being pregnant resulted from rape, with one other 27% saying “it relies upon.”
Requested if abortion needs to be authorized if the being pregnant poses a menace to the lady’s “life or well being,” 46% of abortion opponents stated sure, and 37% opposed an exception for rape. An additional 27% stated “It relies upon,” the group reported.
One-in-three adults stated two apparently contradictory statements – that life begins at conception and {that a} pregnant lady is the one one to determine on whether or not to have an abortion – represented their views “not less than considerably properly,” whereas 38% stated these statements didn’t line up with their perspective.
The survey additionally famous a distinction between the ethical view of abortion, with 47% of Individuals viewing it as “morally flawed” in most or all circumstances, versus 22% who consider it “needs to be unlawful in each state of affairs the place they consider it’s immoral.” Virtually half of all adults, 48%, stated abortion needs to be authorized in circumstances the place it’s morally flawed.
The analysis confirmed that the progress of a being pregnant figures into many Individuals’ views on when abortion needs to be permitted. At six weeks of gestation, 25% stated abortion needs to be authorized, a quantity that drops to fifteen% at 14 weeks and three% at 24 weeks. Making an abortion unlawful rose from 12% at six weeks to 19% at 14 weeks and 34% at 24 weeks.
White evangelical Protestants are most against abortion (71%), adopted by Black Protestants (51%) and Roman Catholics (41%). Amongst non-evangelical White Protestants, 28% reported they oppose abortion. And for many who say they’re agnostics, atheists or choose “nothing specifically” for non secular perception, solely 7 % stated they oppose legalized abortion.
Pew stated it carried out the survey of 10,441 U.S. adults from March 7-13, 2022, practically two months earlier than the Might 2 leak of a draft majority Supreme Courtroom opinion in Mississippi’s Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group case.
The leaked draft, whose authenticity was confirmed by Chief Justice John Roberts, would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade resolution, a transfer that might delegate abortion regulation to the states. The group stated it had undertaken the survey due to the pending Dobbs case resolution.
