Poll Finds 71% of Americans Support Legal Restrictions on Abortion

Released on the day before the annual March for Life, a new poll has found that a large majority of Americans – 71% – favor legal restrictions on abortion.

The poll was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service order and conducted by Marist Poll. The survey has been conducted annually for more than a decade.

According to the poll, 55% of Americans consider themselves to be “pro-choice” while 40% call themselves “pro-life.”

And yet – the poll still found that a majority of Americans want to substantially limit access to abortion.

Seventy-one percent of Americans believe abortion should be either illegal after the first three months of pregnancy, never permitted, or allowed only in the case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

Just 29% of Americans believe abortion should be allowed during the first six months of pregnancy or available whenever a woman wants one.

“A majority of Americans — 54% — oppose taxpayer funding of abortion, and 81% of Americans believe laws can protect both the mother and her unborn child,” the poll found.

Other important findings from the poll include:

• 63% of Americans oppose new federal rules that allow sending prescription drugs for medication abortions through the mail instead of having women get them in-person from a specially certified health provider.
• Three-quarters say doctors, nurses, or other health care professionals who have religious objections to abortion should not be forced to perform them.
• A majority (54%) believe organizations who have religious objections to abortion should not be legally required to provide insurance coverage for abortion.
• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Americans either “oppose” or “strongly oppose” using tax dollars to support abortion abroad, including 59% who self-identify as pro-choice.

The leader of the Knights of Columbus, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, said Americans who support laws to protect women and their preborn baby constitute a “supermajority” of the citizenry.

“As we await a decision in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, our polling continues to show that over 60% of Americans reject the central holding of Roe v. Wade, and want to return the decision to the states or make abortion illegal,” Supreme Knight Kelly said.

“Roe v. Wade was wrong when it was decided, and its legacy is the tragic destruction of more than 60 million unborn lives and countless wounded women. The time has come for America to turn the page on Roe.”

Supreme Knight Kelly also noted that their polling also “shows that Americans oppose policies that divert tax dollars to pay for abortion here and abroad. This is especially relevant as the bipartisan Hyde Amendment prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortion is in danger.”

You can watch a livestream of the March for Life on Focus on the Family’s Facebook page by clicking here.

Photo from Reuters.