Public Opinion
See also: Societal attitudes towards abortion, United States pro-choice movement, and United States pro-life movementGenerally speaking, in the United States induced abortions become more controversial the later they are performed into the pregnancy.
Gallup notes that abortion attitudes are shifting. Gallup declared in May 2010 that more Americans identifying as "pro-life" is "the new normal", while also noting that there had been no increase in opposition to abortion. It suggested that political polarization may have prompted more Republicans to call themselves "pro-life". The terms "pro-choice" and "pro-life" do not always reflect a political view or fall along a binary; in one Public Religion Research Institute poll, seven in ten Americans described themselves as "pro-choice" while almost two-thirds described themselves as "pro-life".
| Date of poll | Pro-life | Pro-choice | Mixed / neither | Don't know what terms mean | No opinion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011, May 5–8 | 45% | 49% | 3% | 2% | 2% |
| 2010, March 26–28 | 46% | 45% | 4% | 2% | 3% |
| 2009, November 20–22 | 45% | 48% | 2% | 2% | 3% |
| 2009, May 7–10 | 51% | 42% | - | 0 | 7% |
| 2008, September 5–7 | 43% | 51% | 2% | 1% | 3% |
Read more about this topic: Abortion In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words public and/or opinion:
“The public history of modern art is the story of conventional people not knowing what they are dealing with.”
—Robert Motherwell (1915–1991)
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)