A plurality of Americans believe that killing babies in abortions is morally wrong, a new Gallup poll finds.
The Values and Beliefs poll, which Gallup conducts every year, found that 47 percent of Americans believe abortions are morally wrong, while 44 percent said they are morally acceptable.
Gallup also broke down the numbers into those who identify as liberal or conservative. Just 18 percent of conservatives said abortions are morally acceptable, while 70 percent of liberals did. That 52% difference was the largest split on any issue between liberals and conservatives.
The Values and Beliefs poll examines a number of other issues as well, including issues ranging from birth control (which has the highest moral support at 90 percent), to animal testing to polygamy. Issues related to the right to life included embryonic stem cell research, doctor-assisted suicide and human cloning.
According to the poll, 66 percent believe embryonic stem cell research, which involves destroying a human life in its earliest stage, is morally acceptable; 31 percent say it is morally wrong. On doctor-assisted suicide, which now is legal in seven states, 51 percent said they believe it is morally acceptable, while 43 percent said they believe it is morally wrong.
Many still oppose human cloning, however. The poll found that 85 percent believe it is morally wrong and 12 percent believe it is morally acceptable.
Other polls have found similarly strong opposition to the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
A new CBS News poll from June 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. 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.
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.
