According to a recent survey of Americans, 56 percent now think abortion should be legal in all or most cases — up from the slight dip in percentages after the 2015 battle in Congress over funding for Planned Parenthood.
The latest Pew Research Center survey also found disagreement between political parties on the topic of abortion — with an even more polarized divide than two decades ago, according to Pew.
Republicans came in at 59 percent saying abortion should be illegal in all or most cases and 38 percent saying it should be legal, as opposed to the divide in 1995 when results showed 49 percent legal versus 48 percent legal.
For Democrats there has been less change throughout the last 20 years — 70 percent say abortion should be legal in at least most cases and in 1995 that number was at 64 percent.
There are no significant gender differences in views, according to Pew, with majorities of both men (57 percent) and women (55 percent) saying it should be legal in at least most cases.
Varies by age
Support for legal abortion also varies by age, education and religious affiliation, according to the survey. Six in 10 of those under age 50 say abortion should be legal in at least most cases. Only 36 percent of those under 30 say abortion should be illegal.
Those with higher education typically lean more toward support of legalized abortion, with 71 percent of those with a postgraduate degree in favor and 64 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree in favor. Americans with a high school education or less are more divided on the issue. Fifty percent say abortion should be legal in at least most cases and 47 percent say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, according to the survey.
Despite the growing support in legal abortion, 69 percent of white evangelical Protestants, or 7 in 10, think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
A 2013 Quinnipiac poll also found that born-again evangelicals were far more likely to support right-to-life than any other religious group.
Fifty-nine percent of born-again evangelicals think abortion should be illegal in all cases (23 percent) or illegal in most cases (36 percent).
The poll also found that those who attend church services more frequently are far more pro-life than those who attend church less often — 60 percent of faithful church attenders say abortion should be illegal.
The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution at its 2015 annual meeting on the sanctity of human life, noting, “God alone is the Author of life and He alone numbers our days, from the moment of conception until natural death.
“We reaffirm our repudiation of the genocide of legalized abortion in the United States and call on civil authorities to enact laws that defend the lives of the unborn,” the resolution reads.
“We call on our fellow citizens of good will to collaborate with us on behalf of justice, the protection of human life and the cause of human flourishing.”
The Alabama Baptist State Convention also passed a resolution on the contraceptive services mandate, stating, “Some of the so-called ‘contraceptive services’ which must be provided under the contraceptive services mandate are not intended to prevent conception at all, but instead result in the destruction of a fertilized egg after conception has already occurred. Alabama Baptists have embraced the belief that children are a blessing from the Lord from the very moment of conception … and have consistently defended both the right to life of the unborn and restrictions of wanton abortion.”
Although those with religious affiliation tend to support life, for the religiously unaffiliated 78 percent say abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 66 percent of white mainline Protestants agree. The majority of Catholics (54 percent) and black Protestants (52 percent) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
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