A new survey indicates that pro-life sentiment is rising in the United States, although Americans’ views of abortion grow more complex when it gets to the details.
The Gallup poll, released Wednesday, found that 44 percent of Americans describe themselves as “pro-life,” an increase of five percentage points from 2022 when a near-record-low 39 percent of Americans described themselves as pro-life. At the same time, 52 percent of Americans call themselves “pro-choice,” a slight decline from the near-record-high 55 percent who used that label in 2022. (The record on both ends of the spectrum was set in 1995 when 56 percent described themselves as pro-choice and 33 percent pro-life.)
The poll contains “some good news for pro-lifers,” said Michael J. New, assistant professor at the Catholic University of America and a senior associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Even so, he said, it “contains some evidence that pro-lifers might have lost a little bit of ground on some individual policy questions.”
For example, support for legal abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, the first trimester, hit a record high (69 percent). Support for legal abortion is significantly less in the second trimester (37 percent support that) and the third trimester (22 percent).
“The Gallup poll adds to the body of survey data that show strong public opposition to abortion after the first trimester,” New wrote in a column for the National Review.
On another question, 49 percent of Americans say abortion should either be illegal in all circumstances or legal in only a few circumstances – an increase of 2 percent from 2022. A total of 47 percent say abortion should be legal under any or legal under most circumstances.
“In the year since the leak of the Dobbs decision, mainstream media coverage of sanctity-of-life issues has been exceptionally biased,” New wrote. “There have been countless stories about public-health problems purportedly caused by pro-life laws. However, there has been very little coverage of the work done by pregnancy help centers or the policies that many states have put in place to assist pregnant women. As pro-lifers gather in Washington, D.C., next weekend to celebrate the anniversary of the Dobbs, we should take heart. Despite a great deal of media hostility, many Americans remain receptive to protecting preborn children.”
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Michael B. Thomas/Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
