Newly released research shows that most Americans and majorities of mainline Protestants and Catholics think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as the country remains deeply divided on the issue following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision. 

The Public Religion Research Institute released new data it compiled on Americans’ views on abortion Thursday, based on interviews conducted with 22,111 U.S. adults last year as part of its American Values Atlas. The survey had a margin of error of +/-0.87 percentage points. 

Overall, 61% of American adults believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with 25% supporting legal abortion in all cases and 36% backing it in most cases. Broken down by religious affiliation, support for legal abortion in all or most cases was highest among Unitarian Universalists (89%) followed by the religiously unaffiliated (82%), Jews (80%), Buddhists (79%), Hindus (78%), adherents to other non-Christians (76%), black Protestants (75%) and white mainline Protestants (65%). 

Majorities of Hispanic Catholics (62%) and white Catholics (57%) favored legal abortion in all or most cases, as did most (54%) of Muslims.

Support for legal abortion in all or most cases was lowest among Hispanic Protestants (40%), Mormons (31%), white Evangelical Protestants (27%) and Jehovah’s Witnesses (21%). To the contrary, majorities of Hispanic Protestants (58%), Mormons (69%) and white Evangelical Protestants (72%) think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

Jehovah’s Witnesses (which is not a Christian denomination) had the largest share of respondents (24%) who skipped the question about abortion, although a majority (54%) still indicated that they thought abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Likewise, Mormonism is also not a Christian religion. 

The new research also revealed a correlation between the frequency of practicing religion and opposition to abortion. 

Those who pray seldom or never constituted a plurality (46%) of respondents classified as “abortion legality supporters,” with Americans who pray weekly making up 36% of this group and those who pray monthly or a few times yearly comprising 17%.

Conversely, respondents who pray weekly constituted the overwhelming majority (68%) of “abortion legality opponents,” while 16% of those who oppose abortion legality seldom or never pray, and 15% pray monthly or a few times yearly. 

A large majority (70%) of “abortion legality supporters” seldom or never read a religious text, while much smaller shares read a religious text monthly or a few times yearly (15%) or read a religious text weekly (13%). By contrast, 44% of “abortion legality opponents” read a religious text weekly, while 35% seldom or never read a religious text, and 20% read a religious text monthly or a few times yearly. 

The overwhelming majority (67%) of “abortion legality supporters” seldom or never attend church services, while 19% attend church services monthly or a few times yearly, and 13% go to church weekly.

Respondents who attend church weekly constitute a majority (44%) of “abortion legality opponents,” while those who seldom or never go to church (34%) and Americans who go to church monthly or a few times a year (21%) make up smaller shares of this group. 

The publication of the PRRI survey documenting Americans’ views on abortion comes nearly four years after the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion. Since then, states have taken divergent paths on the issue, with some states banning abortion in all or most cases and others offering few or no protections. 

PRRI also examined support for abortion legality by state. Nearly all of the states where support for legal abortion in all or most cases is highest have few or no pro-life protections.

Support for legal abortion in all or most cases is highest in Vermont (78%), followed by Massachusetts (77%), Rhode Island (76%), Nevada (74%), New Hampshire (74%), Hawaii (73%), Oregon (72%), the District of Columbia (71%), Washington (71%), New Jersey (70%), Alaska (69%), Connecticut (69%), Illinois (68%), California (67%) and New York (67%). 

The other states with majority support for legal abortion in all or most cases and few or no pro-life protections are: Minnesota (64%), Maryland (63%), Virginia (63%), Maine (62%), Michigan (62%), Montana (61%), Colorado (60%), Delaware (60%), Ohio (60%), Wisconsin (60%), Arizona (58%), Pennsylvania (58%), New Mexico (53%) and Kansas (52%). 

The only state with few or no pro-life protections where most residents oppose abortion in all or most cases is Missouri. Fifty-two percent of respondents in the state think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. 

Residents of many states with near-total abortion bans oppose abortion in most or all cases, with opposition the highest in Utah (64%), followed by West Virginia (54%), Idaho (53%), South Dakota (53%), Arkansas (51%), Louisiana (50%) and Oklahoma (50%). Residents of Mississippi and Tennessee, additional states with near-total abortion bans, are more divided. 

Forty-eight percent of Mississippi residents think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 46% have the opposite view. Similarly, 49% of Tennessee residents think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, while 47% hold the opposite position. Majorities of those living in Alabama (58%), Indiana (51%), Kentucky (54%), North Dakota (56%), South Carolina (57%) and Texas (55%), which also have near-total abortion bans, think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. 

Most residents of states with heartbeat bills that ban abortion after six weeks of gestation, specifically Florida (61%), Georgia (59%) and Iowa (57%), think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Most residents of the fourth state with a heartbeat bill, Wyoming (56%), think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. In one of the two states with a 12-week abortion ban, Nebraska, most residents oppose abortion in all or most cases (53%), while in the other state, North Carolina, most residents support abortion in all or most cases (64%). 

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