Support for abortion rights has hit the highest level in decades in the wake of a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion on the fate of Roe v. Wade.
In the findings of a new Gallup poll, 55% of Americans said they identify as “pro-choice,” the highest level since 1995. Those calling themselves “pro-life” — 39% in the latest poll— was at the lowest level since 1996. The uptick in pro-choice identification can largely be attributed to an increase in the sentiment among younger adults and women, the polling organization said.
Gallup surveyed about 1,000 US adults by phone from May 2-22.
A separate poll of 1,000 adults conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NORC at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan research organization, found that 57% of respondents said a woman should be able to obtain a legal abortion if she wants it for any reason. It’s the highest share since NORC began asking the question in 1977. Pew Research Center has also found that when asked more broadly, 61% of Americans say abortion should be legal in the U.S.
More than half of Americans consider abortion morally acceptable, up from 47% a year ago, according to Gallup. That compares to a record-low 38% who say it’s morally wrong, down from 46% in May 2021.
Late on May 2, Politico reported that it had obtained a draft majority opinion, signed by Justice Samuel Alito, overturning the landmark 1973 Roe ruling that made abortion a constitutional right. In the absence of Roe, about two dozen U.S. states have laws on the books that would outlaw the procedure in all or most cases, with others indicating they may move in a similar direction. More than half of child-bearing people in the U.S. ages 13 to 44 — some 36 million people — live in states deemed hostile to abortion rights by Guttmacher Institute, which researches reproductive health.
Gallup’s research also shows that Americans are mostly opposed to overturning Roe — 58% said the ruling should stand in the May survey. That’s largely in line with the 59% average opposition to the change since 1989. That opinion was split sharply on party lines, with 80% of Democrats and 62% of independents supporting the ruling and only 31% of Republicans.
