Poll Watch: Poll Shows Support for Legal Abortion Drops to Lowest Level in 15 Years

A new poll conducted by Pew Research finds the support for legal abortions has dropped to its lowest level in 15 years.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 31-April 21 among 1,521 adults, finds President Barack Obama’s abortion advocay could be sparking a shift to the pro-life side of the abortion debate.

The Pew poll found 46 percent of Americans say abortion should be legal in most cases (28%) or all cases (18%) and 44 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all cases (16%).

That two point margin in favor of abortion is the lowest margin since 1995 as Pew, and other polling firms, have been asking the same polling question of Americans across the country every year.

The proportion saying that abortion should be legal in all or most cases has declined to 46% from 54% last August.

Currently, 44% say abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all cases (16%), up slightly since last August (41%).

Breaking down the polling results by social groups and comparing them with Pew’s results in August, men saw a 10 percent pro-life shift and women a 5 percent shift between polls.

Older voters 50 and up experienced a greater shift (10-11 percent) to the pro-life position making abortions illegal while voters under 50 saw a five percent pro-life shift.

Politically, there has been notable decline in the proportion of independents saying abortion should be legal in most or all cases; majorities of independents favored legal abortion in August and the two October surveys, but just 44% do so today.

Here are the charts:

And, who says that America is moving LEFT on social issues? That is not to say that abortion anytime soon will return to being illegal but there is clearly a disfavor in this pro-death grizzly procedure.