Views on Abortion Show Little Change

Americans' views on abortion have been very stable for the past fifteen years. According to a CBS News Poll conducted December 17-20, 2010, just over a third of Americans think that abortion should generally be available to those who want it. Another 40 percent think it should be available but with stricter limits than it has now, and one in five thinks it should not be permitted at all.

CBS Evening News in Focus: Abortion Debate in America Reignited

Those percentages have changed very little since the mid 1990s; prior to that, slightly more Americans thought it should be generally available.

As might be expected, there are large partisan and ideological differences in views on abortion. Roughly half of liberals and Democrats think it should be generally available, while around three in ten conservatives and Republicans think it should not be permitted. 

And historically, men and women share similar views. The December CBS News Poll is consistent with this trend: 37 percent of men, and 35 percent of women, think abortion should generally be available, while about one in five of each gender thinks it should not be allowed.

But abortion falls low on the list of top priorities facing the country. In recent years, Americans have repeatedly volunteered the economy and jobs as the most important problem facing the nation; that issue dominates others by a large margin. In a CBS News/New York Times Poll conducted in January, less than one percent of Americans volunteered abortion as the most important problem facing the country.

Government involvement

The new Republican-controlled House of Representatives has introduced bills that would prohibit taxpayer-funding of abortion - and most Americans would agree that the government should not be paying for or subsidizing abortions

In late 2009, prior to the passage of health care reform legislation, CBS News asked the public whether health coverage purchased with assistance from the government should cover abortion procedures. Fifty-six percent said insurance purchased with subsidies or credits from the federal government should not cover abortion procedures; just 34 percent felt such insurance should cover abortion.

Most of those who think abortion should be generally available also believe insurance purchased with assistance from the government should cover abortion. Among those who think abortion should be allowed but with greater limits, 59 percent do not think government subsidized insurance should cover abortion. That number rises to nine in 10 among those who think abortion should not be permitted at all.

And going back even further, to 1994, 53 percent told CBS News that abortion should not be part of a government health care plan.

More Recent CBS News Polls
Search Polls Going Back to 1976

Correction: A labeling error has been corrected in the charts included within this post.

Sarah Dutton is the CBS News director of surveys. You can read more of her posts here.

[tsigili]

Religion continues to reside in the dark ages.

[formrusmcsgt]

I respect neos' right to choose.

I wonder why they can't respect the same right for others......

[GrizzlyBear55]

I'm totally against abortion because it's murder. I will agree with taxpayer abortions for Liberals though because it's good for America.

[formrusmcsgt]

Whatever abortion is or isn't, it isn't murder.

Murder is the act of killing an individual.

Fetuses are not individuals by definition.

Although I would never countenance abortion personally, I do not confuse it with murder as you do.

[hakori]

GrizzlyBear55, so you think abortion is murder, but it's ok to murder liberals, or at least the unborn children of liberals? And you expect who to take you seriously? Even people who are pro-choice aren't pro-abortion. Abortions should be rare, but safe and legal when they are performed. Abortions will occur wether legal or not; you'd have us return to the days of back ally abortions with women dying. But of course, you'd probaly say they deserve it, right? Abortion will never be illegal in the US, but you on the radical right will and have made it almost impossible in some areas of the country. You intimidate women's clinic employees, and in the most extreme cases, you murder women's clinic employees. I live in Birmingham, Alabama and we know of domestic terrorism here. From church bombings in the 1960's to abortion clinic bombings in the 1990's, we know of radical right-wing terrorism. I'm certainly not in any way saying you are one of those people, but I'd almost bet money you sympathize with them.

[slatep]

Abortion is a very personal decision never to be taken lightly.

I think the cut-off date for abortion should be 14 weeks; never any later unless the mother's life is in danger or the fetus would have absolutely no quality of life if allowed to be born.

There are so many childless couples that would be thrilled to death to have a newborn baby.

Prospective parents could register at abortion clinics, be screened and notified when a baby that meets their requirements is born.

This would almost be the same as creating a nursery where a couple wishing to adopt could interview the mother, obtain medical histories and go home with a new baby.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY.!! The first words to be screamed.!

Volunteers would agree to monitor each baby for three days at a facility rented for $1 a year and each infant would be examined by a volunteer pediatrician before being released.

All birthmothers would agree in the end of her first trimester to irrevocably sign over her health infant to the center.

Late term abortions should be punishable by five year minimum
sentences; so that no viable infant should ever have to suffer a pair of scissors shoved into it's brain stem or it's spinal cord severed by an abortion doctor.