POLL ANALYSES January 22, 2002
Americans Still Not Content With Abortion Laws But majority would keep abortion legal
by Lydia Saad
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
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PRINCETON, NJ -- January 22 marks the 29th anniversary of the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, and all these years later, a Gallup poll finds that the controversy is not resolved for many Americans. Although a majority of U.S. adults would keep abortion legal in this country, fewer than half are satisfied with the nation's abortion policies.
According to a Jan. 7-10 Gallup survey, 48% of Americans are "satisfied" with the nation's abortion policies, and 43% are dissatisfied. When asked in a separate question whether abortion policies should be changed or remain as they are, only 39% say they should stay the same. Another 39% would like to see abortion policies made more strict while 19% would prefer them to be less strict.
Putting these two attitudes together, Gallup finds that a majority of Americans (58%) are content keeping abortion legal, either saying they want abortion laws made less strict, or indicating satisfaction with keeping the laws as they are. Close to one third (30%) are intent on seeing abortion laws restricted. (The remaining 26% express a more ambiguous set of views -- for instance, saying they support stricter laws on abortion at the same time they say they are satisfied with current laws.)
Stability in Abortion Views
These attitudes are virtually unchanged from a year ago. In fact, Gallup trends on the subject of abortion show that attitudes on this subject rarely change.
Gallup's long-term trend question on abortion asks, "Do you think abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?" From 1975 through today, only a minority of Americans have held one of the extreme positions, either that abortion should be made totally legal or totally illegal. The majority has continually said that abortion should be legal "only under certain circumstances." Most recently, according to an August 2001 survey, about a quarter of Americans (26%) believe abortion should be legal in all cases, a little over half (56%) say it should be legal in certain cases, and 17% say it should be illegal in all cases.
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