New Pew poll: “Support for abortion slips”
From the Pew Research Center, today…
Polls conducted in 2009 have found fewer Americans expressing support for abortion than in previous years. In Pew Research Center polls in 2007 and 2008, supporters of legal abortion clearly outnumbered opponents; now Americans are evenly divided on the question, and there have been modest increases in the numbers who favor reducing abortions or making them harder to obtain. Less support for abortion is evident among most demographic and political groups.
The latest Pew Research Center survey also reveals that the abortion debate has receded in importance, especially among liberals. At the same time, opposition to abortion has grown more firm among conservatives, who have become less supportive of finding a middle ground on the issue and more certain of the correctness of their own views on abortion.
No single reason for the shift in opinions is apparent, but the pattern of changes suggests that the election of a pro-choice Democrat for president may be a contributing factor. Among Republicans, there has been a 7 point decline in support for legal abortion and a corresponding 6 point increase in opposition to abortion. But the change is smaller among Democrats, whose support for legal abortion is down 4 points with no corresponding increase in pro-life opinion….
The shift in opinion is broad-based, appearing in most demographic groups in the population. One of the largest shifts (10 points) has occurred among white, non-Hispanic Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly. Substantial change has also occurred among Democratic men (with support for abortion down 9 points), but not among Democratic women.
This shift in attitudes is also evident on other measures of public opinion about restrictions on abortion. For instance, 4-in-10 Americans (41%) now say they favor making it more difficult to obtain an abortion, up 6 points from 35% in 2007. Similar movement is seen on the question of whether it would be good to reduce the number of abortions in this country; in 2005, 59% of respondents agreed it would be good to reduce abortions. Today 65% take this view, an increase of 6 points. And 3/4 (76%) continue to favor requiring minors to obtain the permission of a parent before having an abortion.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center… [was] conducted Aug. 11-27 among 4,013 adults….
The poll shows evidence of significant weakening in the level of concern about the abortion issue among liberal Democrats, while conservative Republicans appear more entrenched in their positions and less willing to compromise on this issue….
The timing of this shift in attitudes on abortion suggests it could be connected to Obama’s election. The decline in support for legal abortion first appeared in polls in the spring of 2009….
The poll finds that 4-in-10 Americans are unaware of Obama’s position on the abortion issue. Conservative Republicans, however, are more likely than any other group to know Obama’s position, with 75% correctly identifying him as “pro-choice” rather than “pro-life.”…
Republicans and Republican-leaning political independents have each become less pro-choice and more pro-life in recent polling. Democrats have also become less pro-choice….
[G]ender differences now exist among Democrats. Among Democratic men, support for legal abortion has dropped 9% from 2007/2008 to 2009 (62% to 53%) while support is unchanged among Democratic women (65% in 2007/2008 vs. 64% in 2009). This means that a significant gender gap over abortion now exists among Democrats, with Democratic women expressing more support for abortion rights than Democratic men (64% vs. 53%)….
[HT: SBALIst on Twitter]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
A tad off-topic, but I honestly think the weekend question ought to be what a pro-choicer could possibly argue in the presence of a person who has been disfigured by abortion (not the women, but the “fetus” at the time). How could you look THEM in the face and argue that their mutilation—even their intended deaths—should be legal?
I bet you anything they’d just waffle about how “rare it is that a fetus survives” and all that bovine excretion that has nothing to do with the question. Simply put, they’d have no argument that wasn’t ugly or unjust. Because that’s exactly what abortion is.
Support for legalized abortion has been steadily declining since the seventies. If things keep going in the direction that they already are, we’re going to eventually see Roe overturned. We just need to make people care more about the issue overall.