The number of Americans who call themselves “pro-choice” had a 20 point lead over “pro-life” in the mid 1990s, today pro-life leads by 2 points.
Via TWS:
Many Republican insiders continue to push the narrative that the GOP lost in 2012 because of the Hispanic vote and social issues, rather than because a badly broken Republican nomination processproduced a candidate who didn’t emphasize Obamacare and didn’t motivate downscale rural white Americans to vote. In light of this ongoing debate, it’s worth revisiting Gallup’s illuminating polling on abortion.
Gallup’s most recent polling on the issue, taken this spring, indicates that more Americans actually regard themselves as “pro-life” than “pro-choice.” According to the poll, 48 percent of Americans say they are “pro-life,” while 45 percent say they are “pro-choice.” What’s more, opposition to abortion is rather plainly on the rise, as those numbers were effectively flipped ten years ago — and as, in the mid-1990s, the number of people who considered themselves “pro-choice” outpaced the number who considered themselves “pro-life” by about 20 percentage points.
Another finding from Gallup’s polling, however, is perhaps even more illuminating. Those who work in America’s newsrooms are overwhelmingly in favor of abortion’s legality, and they tend to report the issue as if anyone who opposes abortion is a fringe religious fanatic.