Forty-two years after the passing of Roe v. Wade, how do Americans really feel about abortion?
A new Marist poll sponsored by the Catholic organization Knights of Columbus asked Americans if they were pro-life or pro-choice – but they didn’t stop there.
The poll’s stated intention was to “understand Americans’ attitudes toward abortion,” including those who “do not strongly align with one side or the other,” and to identify the “nuances” in the abortion debate.
According to the poll, 47 percent of Americans identify themselves as pro-life, and 49 percent as pro-choice.
But it’s not that simple – Americans’ views on abortion are “complex.”
When respondents were offered “additional options,” a “good deal of common ground is revealed” between the two sides.
Eighty-four percent of respondents support some form of “significant restrictions” on abortion; such as limiting legal abortions to the first trimester of pregnancy, only allowing abortion in cases involving rape, incest or risk of maternal death – or not at all.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents who identified as “pro-choice” supported the same restrictions.
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