More than half of Americans say abortion should be legal in all, most cases

By Cassie Miller

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More than half of Americans say abortion should be legal in all, most cases

CP Photo: Jared Wickerham

Signs at a May 2022 rally and march to defend abortion rights in Downtown Pittsburgh

Public opinion data from Pew Research Center shows that a majority of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

The data, which was compiled in May, shows that 61% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases compared to 37% of Americans who say it should be illegal in all or most cases.

The percentage of Americans who say abortion should be legal in all or most cases rose slightly from 59% in 2021, according to the findings.

The percentage of Americans who say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases has declined steadily over the last seven years, the data shows.

In 2015, the percentage of Americans who said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases was 43% compared to 37% in 2022.

A majority of men (58%) and women (63%) said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Americans’ views on abortion vary greatly by religious affiliation, according to Pew data.

74% of white evangelical protestants said that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases compared to 24% who said that it should be legal in all or most cases.
50% of respondents who identify as Catholic said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 42% who said that it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Unaffiliated respondents were the most likely (84%) to say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to just 15% of unaffiliated respondents who said it should be illegal.

Support for Abortion by Race & Ethnicity

Asian, Black, and Hispanic respondents were more likely to say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases compared to white respondents who said the same.

74 … the percentage of Asian respondents who said abortion should be legal in all or most cases

68 … the percentage of Black respondents who said abortion should be legal in all or most cases

60 … the percentage of Hispanic respondents who said abortion should be legal in all or most cases

59 … the percentage of white respondents who said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Cassie Miller is an associate editor at the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, where this story first appeared.