Poll: Majority of Americans Oppose Killing Babies in Abortion or Want More Abortion Limits

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 8, 2020   |   10:12AM   |   Washington, DC

A new CBS News poll shows the majority of Americans oppose killing unborn babies in abortions or say they want more limits on abortion, which virtually unlimited in many states.

Polling data on abortion has consistently shown that Americans do not support unlimited abortions in the way that Joe Biden and Planned Parenthood do and a new CBS News poll released today is no exception. The poll found just 43% of Americans think abortions should be generally available while 55% of Americans say it should either be more limited or should not be permitted altogether.

The number of Americans who either don’t support abortion or want more limits on it is likely higher because the poll vastly undersampled Republicans, who are more likely to be pro-life, and over-sampled Democrats, who are more likely to support abortions. Just 25% of the people CBS polled were Republicans while almost 35% of the people CBS polled were Democrats.

Polls from earlier this year also show Americans either oppose abortions or want them more limited.

A new Marist poll from January found six in 10 Americans (62%) say that if the Supreme Court revisits Roe v. Wade it should rule to allow states to determine restrictions (46%) or make abortion illegal (16%). Only 33% of Americans say Roe v. Wade should be interpreted to allow for legal abortion any time without restriction. The 62% majority includes about four in 10 of those who identify as Democrats (39%) or as “pro-choice” (40%). That essentially puts Americans on record as favoring the reversal of Roe since only an overturning of the Supreme Court ruling of the case would allow states to determine abortion law and policy or make abortions illegal.

The poll also found a majority of Americans favor pro-life candidates over candidates who support abortion.

About two-thirds of Americans (65%) and the same percentage of registered voters say they “are more likely to vote for” candidates who would limit abortion to at most the first three months of pregnancy. This includes about nine in 10 Republicans (88%), more than six in 10 independents (62% percent), and more than four in 10 Democrats (44%).

Another January poll, from Gallup, found a majority of Americans are dissatisfied with current laws allowing abortion on demand.

“Fifty-eight percent of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the nation’s policies on abortion, marking a seven-percentage-point increase from one year ago and a new high in Gallup’s trend,” it reported.

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Last summer,Gallup’s annual abortion poll showed increasing pro-life sentiment across the Untied States as more people say they oppose all or most abortions than have said so in recent years.

Typically the Gallup poll has found a majority of Americans oppose all or most abortions even though some Americans who technically take a pro-life position opposing abortion wrongly think they are supposedly pro-choice.

In the past, the Gallup survey has found that roughly half or just over half of Americans oppose all or almost all abortions. The newest polling data is no different, as Gallup notes it has “consistently” found over the years that a majority of Americans are pro-life.

Gallup found 60% of Americans take a pro-life position on abortion wanting all (21%) or almost all 39% abortions made illegal. That 60% figure is the highest percentage of Americans espousing a pro-life position since 2009 and a dramatic rise in pro-life attitudes since the 53% figure Gallup pound in its polling last year.

The poll found just 38% of Americans take a pro-abortion position wanting all (25%) or almost all (13%) abortions legal. That is down from the 43% pro-abortion figure Gallup found last year.

Other polls align with the Gallup findings.

In the spring of 2019, a Hill-HarrisX survey found that 55 percent of voters said they do not think heartbeat laws are too restrictive – even though they would ban almost all abortions, according to The Hill.

Similarly, a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found that just 6 percent of Americans said abortions should be allowed “up until the birth of the child.”

And in the winter, Marist University research found that just 13 percent of Americans support abortion at any time during pregnancy. In contrast, 58 percent said they would like abortions to be allowed, at most, in cases of rape, incest and risks to the mother’s life, and an additional 22 percent would limit abortions to the first trimester. That is a full 80 percent of Americans who disagree with abortion activists’ agenda.

Meanwhile, another 2019 abortion poll found 58% of Americans want all or almost all abortions made illegal.

A poll conducted by the Morning Consult research firm finds most Americans want abortions to be made illegal either in all cases or in very rare cases such as rape or incest or win the pregnancy directly threatens the life of the mother. Those cases constitute less than 2 or 3% of all abortions, meaning that most Americans support making virtually all abortions illegal.

In 1973, the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade and Dole v. Bolton decisions that effectively took the decision-making process from states on abortion law and put it in the hands of 9 unelected judges. The decisions allowed virtually unlimited abortions and prohibited states from protecting unborn children from abortion except in the latter stages of pregnancy.