A new Gallup report issued Friday revealed that Americans are dissatisfied with the state of abortion policy in the country more so than at any other point since polling first began in 2001.
Just a quarter of American adults surveyed are content with prevailing abortion policies, while nearly half of Americans want less strict laws. The growing unease is driven by nearly three-quarters of Democrats wanting more relaxed policies, alongside 50 percent of women expressing a similar sentiment.
The massive shift in public opinion comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark abortion case, that handed back to states the power to choose local abortion policy.
“The court has corrected a terrible legal and moral error, like when Brown v. Board overruled Plessy v. Ferguson,” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said in greeting the news. “Millions of Americans have spent half a century praying, marching, and working toward today’s historic victories for the rule of law and innocent life.”
Recent political developments, however, confirm the Gallup poll’s findings of a rapidly shifting landscape when it comes to American attitudes on abortion. Voters in Vermont, Michigan, California, and Kentucky backed measures supporting state access to abortions on Election Day.
“Abortion is a winning issue. . . . Voters want people to have bodily autonomy and agency over their lives. That is pretty core to being an American,” Elizabeth Nash of the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, told the BBC in early November.
Notably, Gallup reported that support for abortion access had grown significantly amongst Christian denominations. For the first time since the polling organization first began surveying Americans on the issue, a plurality of Catholics and Protestants are now dissatisfied and demand a loosening of abortion restrictions.
Only 15 percent of Americans are dissatisfied because they wish to see stricter abortion laws enacted.