Thursday, April 30, 2009

U.S. Abortion Support Slips

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Pew Research Study: Currently, 43% of men say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 46% say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. In August 2008, a greater proportion of men said that abortion should be legal than illegal (by 53% to 42%).

The change among women has been more modest -- 49% believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, down from 54% last August.

People older than age 50 -- both men and women -- express less support for legal abortion than they did in August 2008. Just 40% of men older than 50 say abortion should be legal in most or all cases compared with 53% last summer. Support for legal abortion among women older than 50 has fallen from 53% to 45%.

There has been little change in opinions among women younger than age 50: 53% say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, which is largely unchanged from August (55%). Support for abortion has declined since last April among men under age 50 (from 53% then to 45% currently).



Abortion Opinions: A Closer Look

Between August and late October 2008, the proportion supporting legal abortion ranged from 57% (in mid-October) to 53% (in late October), before declining to 46% currently. Though opinion among some subgroups varied significantly across those surveys, some trends are apparent, aside from the falloff in support among men.

There has been notable decline in the proportion of independents saying abortion should be legal in most or all cases; majorities of independents favored legal abortion in August and the two October surveys, but just 44% do so today. In addition, the proportion of moderate and liberal Republicans saying abortion should be legal declined between August and late October (from 67% to 57%). In the current survey, just 43% of moderate and liberal Republicans say abortion should legal in most or all cases.

Among religious groups, support for abortion has steadily declined since August among white mainline Protestants (from 69% then to 54% currently). And just 23% of white evangelical Protestants now favor legal abortion, down from 33% in August and mid-October and 28% in late October.

The change has been less pronounced among white non-Hispanic Catholics: In August, 51% said that abortion should be legal in most or all cases; in both October surveys, 55% favored legal abortion. In the current survey, 49% of white non-Hispanic Catholics say that abortion should be legal while 42% believe it should be illegal.

View the topline and survey methodology at www.people-press.org .
Pew Research

Patrick Madrid, Catholic Apologist, has posted a video on his web page that powerfully and graphically illustrates the effects of the decline in numbers of children in the countries of the western world and the the growth of the numbers of Muslims. In not so many years, Western European and American history and culture may no longer be studied in our schools and universities.











2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ray, check out video over at "New Advent" featured by Patrick Madrid. What abortion and contraception does to culture, etc. Be great you could import it here to your blog.

--William

Unknown said...

William:

Thanks for the poke in the ribs. I looked at Madrid's post a few times but thought that I didn't want to post a link to a video. But after your jab, I watched it and have appended it to this post on abortion support.