For the first time,
since Gallop started asking abortion questions in 1995, more Americans
are identifying themselves as Pro-Life than those who are calling
themselves Pro-choice.
Coming in the yearly
"Values and Beliefs survey"
Gallop found that 51% of Americans now identify themselves as Pro-life
versus 42% calling themselves Pro-Choice. This appears to be a
significant shift over last year where the result stood at 50%
Pro-Choice and 44% Pro-Life. Prior to that the number for Pro-life
respondents had only reached a peak of 46% in August 2001 and May 2002.
Respondents were given three choices about the legality of
abortion. It was nearly a tie between those on the "extremes" of the
issue. Those who believe the procedure should be
illegal under any circumstances verses those who believe it should be
legal
under any circumstances. The numbers were 22% to 23% respectively. This
has remained even like this since Gallop started asking the question.
The middle option, those who believe abortion should be legal only
under certain circumstances, has also remained steady at 53%.
Probing the middle position further the poll found that the highest
percentage of the respondents believed that abortion should only be
legal in just a few circumstances. The numbers confirm the results on
two other recent surveys. That of the Gallop Daily Tracking poll, and a
recent Pew Research Center poll.
In the Pew Poll there has been an eight point decline in those who say
abortion should be legal in all or most cases. It declined from 54% to
46%. Those answering that abortion should be legal in only a few or no
cases increased from 41% to 44% .
The increase in the polling numbers is due to increases among the
members of certain groups. First the numbers among Republicans,
including those independents who lean Republican, has gone up 10% from
60 to 70%. Also up are the numbers among those identifying themselves
as Protestant or Catholic. For Protestants there has been a seven point
increase and for Catholics the percentage for those calling themselves
Pro-Life has gone up eight points.
When the numbers are broken down by gender 49% of women identify
themselves Pro-LIfe versus 44% calling themselves Pro-Choice. The
advantage also goes to the Pro-Life side among men. In this most recent
poll 54% responding said that they are Pro-Life as opposed to only 39%
for the Pro-Choice position.
Gallops bottom line of the survey is as follows.
With the first pro-choice president in eight years already
making changes to the nation's policies on funding abortion overseas,
expressing his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and moving toward
rescinding federal job protections for medical workers who refuse to
participate in abortion procedures, Americans -- and, in particular,
Republicans -- seem to be taking a step back from the pro-choice
position. However, the retreat is evident among political moderates as
well as conservatives.
It is possible that, through his abortion policies, Obama has
pushed the public's understanding of what it means to be "pro-choice"
slightly to the left, politically. While Democrats may support that, as
they generally support everything Obama is doing as president, it may
be driving others in the opposite direction.
The results for the survey are gotten from telephone interviews with
1,015 national adults. The people responding were 18 years or older.
The poll was conducted May 7-10, 2009. The poll has a maximum margin of
sampling error is ±3 percentage points.