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People attend the 50th annual March for Life rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on January 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. This year’s march by the anti-abortion activists was the first since the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health last year, which overturned 50 years of federal government protections for abortion healthcare. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Just the facts on abortion attitudes

Analysis  |  March 11, 2024

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People attend the 50th annual March for Life rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on January 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. This year’s march by the anti-abortion activists was the first since the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health last year, which overturned 50 years of federal government protections for abortion healthcare. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

In preparation for a recent appearance on The Joy Reid Show, I prepared the following talking points that might be of interest to others.

 

  • NATIONAL TRENDS. Two thirds (64%) of Americans favor the legality of abortion, vs. one third who oppose.
    • Support has risen since the 2022 Dobbs decision.
    • Less than one in 10 (9%) Americans believe abortion should be illegal in ALL cases.

 

  • STATES. According to PRRI’s American Values Atlas, there is not a single state in the country in which more than 14% believe abortion should be illegal in ALL cases.

 

  • RELIGION. You can’t understand the fault lines over abortion today as a religious/secular divide. Most religious Americans favor the legality of abortion.
    • Only two major religious groups — white evangelical Protestants and Hispanic Protestants — have majorities opposing the legality of abortion. And combined they comprise only about one in five Americans.
    • White evangelical Protestants: 72% oppose the legality of abortion, but only 17% say it should be illegal in ALL CASES.
    • The official stances of church bodies are not good indicators of where their constituents stand on abortion. Majorities of both Latino and white Catholics favor the legality of abortion.

 

  • PARTY. 62% of Republicans oppose the legality of abortion, but only 15% say it should be illegal in ALL CASES.

 

  • AGE. At least six in 10 Americans of every age group say abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
    • 68% of young Americans ages 18 to 29
    • 64% of those ages 30 to 49
    • 63% of those ages 50 to 64
    • 62% of those age 65 and over.

 

  • POLITICAL SALIENCE. Since the Dobbs decision, Democrats view abortion as more politically salient than Republicans.
    • Half (50%) of Democrats, compared to only 38% of Republicans, say they would only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion.
    • Republicans (45%) are more likely to say that they would only vote for a candidate who shares their views on immigration compared with fewer than three in 10 Democrats (29%)
    • Abortion restrictions also have lost at the ballot box in Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky.

 

  • IVF. A recent CBS News/YouGov poll shows 86% support for keeping IVF legal for women.

 

 

Robert P. Jones

Robert P. Jones serves as president and founder of PRRI and is the author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future and White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, which won a 2021 American Book Award.

 

This column originally appeared on Robert P. Jones’s substack #WhiteTooLong.