May 15, 2009 / 10:09 am
A new poll for the first time finds that a slight majority of Americans now call themselves "pro-life" regarding abortion. The poll also shows that a majority of Catholics once again consider themselves pro-life while the number of Americans who think abortion should be legal "under any circumstances" has declined.
The Gallup Poll conducted from May 7 to May 10 reported that 51 percent of Americans now call themselves "pro-life," while only 42 percent call themselves "pro-choice." Self-described pro-lifers had never made up a majority of survey respondents since Gallup started asking the question in 1995.
A year ago, 50 percent of Americans categorized themselves as pro-choice and only 44 percent categorized themselves as pro-life. The previous high for pro-life sentiment was in 2001 and 2002, when 46 percent self-identified as pro-life.
The results come from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, which polled 1,015 national adults. It claims a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.