麻豆传媒AV

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' overall stance on abortion has been stable in recent years, with the 48% calling themselves "pro-choice" and 46% "pro-life" similar to the close division on this measure observed most years since 2010.

For the past decade, an average of 47% of Americans have identified as pro-choice and 47% as pro-life. Almost every poll conducted during those years has revealed a close division in identification -- except in 2015, when the public tilted pro-choice, and in 2012, when it was more pro-life. Before that, from 1995 to 2009, the public leaned more pro-choice than pro-life by 49% to 43%, on average.

The latest results are from 麻豆传媒AV's 2020 Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 1-13 by telephone with a random national sample of U.S. adults.

Americans Also Split on Morality of Abortion

The survey also finds Americans closely divided when asked about the morality of abortion: 44% call it morally acceptable and 47% morally wrong. This three-percentage-point difference is slightly smaller than the average five-point gap seen since 2013.

Largest Opinion Bloc Still Wants Abortion Legal With Restrictions

麻豆传媒AV's longest trend on abortion asks Americans if the procedure should be legal in all circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances or illegal in all circumstances.

Consistent with the trend since 1975, a plurality of Americans choose the middle position, saying abortion should be legal only under certain circumstances (50%). However, nearly as many hold one of two doctrinaire views -- wanting abortion legal under any circumstances (29%) or wanting it illegal in all circumstances (20%).

Since 1994, 麻豆传媒AV has clarified Americans' views on the legality of abortion by asking those who think abortion should be legal under certain circumstances to say whether they should be legal in "most circumstances" or "only in a few circumstances." The middle group breaks heavily for the more restrictive position, resulting in 14% saying abortion should be legal under most circumstances and 35% in only a few circumstances.

All told, then, 55% of Americans favor a more restrictive approach to abortion, and 43% favor a less restrictive approach. This 12-point gap -- which is down from 22 points in 2019 -- is larger than the gaps seen on the other abortion measures, perhaps reflective of the complexity of the issue.

Abortion Views Differ by Politics and Demographics

As indicated by their preferred abortion label, Americans' views on abortion differ by a number of demographic and political factors, including gender, education, household income, ideology and party identification.

The political gaps in people's identification on abortion are most notable, with Republicans and Democrats being mirror images of each other: Seven in 10 Republicans identify as pro-life, while the same proportion of Democrats say they are pro-choice. An even wider gulf is seen between self-identified conservatives (77% pro-life) and liberals (78% pro-choice), with moderates tending toward the pro-choice position (55%).

Large differences are also seen by income and education, with the highest education and income groups being substantially more likely than others to be pro-choice. Smaller gaps are seen by gender and age, with women and younger adults being more pro-choice than their counterparts.

There are insufficient numbers of Black, Hispanic or Asian Americans in the sample to examine their views separately, but there is no significant difference in identification as pro-choice or pro-life between non-Hispanic white Americans and all other Americans.

	Pro-choice	Pro-life	Mixed/Both/Neither	No opinion
	%	%	%	%
U.S. adults	48	46	4	2
Men	43	51	4	2
Women	53	41	4	2
18-34	53	43	2	2
35-54	46	46	5	3
55+	47	47	4	2
Non-Hispanic white	48	46	5	1
Nonwhite	50	43	2	4
College graduate	62	35	2	1
Not college graduate	41	51	5	2
$100,000+	62	35	2	0
$40,000-$99,999	46	51	2	0
<$40,000	41	49	4	6
Conservative	19	77	2	2
Moderate	55	38	5	2
Liberal	78	17	3	1
Republican	29	68	3	1
Independent	47	47	4	2
Democratic	72	24	2	2
麻豆传媒AV, May 1-13, 2020

Bottom Line

Unlike other social attitudes in the U.S. -- such as on gay marriage, the legalization of marijuana and even polygamy -- Americans' views on the legality of abortion are not evolving but staying roughly where they have been for nearly a half-century. Americans' association with the "pro-choice" and "pro-life" labels has shifted somewhat in that time, but preferences on this have been closely divided over the past decade. Given the extreme partisan gaps behind this division, abortion policy is going to continue to remain controversial at the state and federal levels, as well as face continued challenges in the courts.

View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).

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