Following the draft ruling leak from the Supreme Court, the Pew Research Center released the results of a nationwide poll that examined Americans' views on abortion conducted in March, after oral arguments were heard in the case before the court that could overturn Roe v. Wade.
The poll found that 19% of U.S. adults think abortion should be legal in all cases, 71% say it should be mostly legal or mostly illegal, and less than 8% believe it should be illegal in all cases, without exception.
The research found that Americans' views on abortion largely depended on a variety of circumstances, including the length of the pregnancy and the health of the mother. "The abortion debate in America is often framed as a legal binary," read a statement, "with 'pro-life' people on one side, seeking to restrict abortion's availability, and 'pro-choice' people on the other, opposing government restrictions on abortion [but] relatively few Americans on either side of the debate take an absolutist view on the legality of abortion."
References
- On abortion, few Americans take an absolutist viewpewresearch.org
- America's Abortion Quandarypewresearch.org
Complete report (PDF)
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