The percentage of Americans who support abortion rights has slipped since last year and opinion on the issue is now evenly divided, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
That’s a change from 2007 and 2008, when supporters of legal abortion “clearly outnumbered” opponents, according to a Pew news release. Four in 10 Americans now say they favor making it more difficult to obtain an abortion, up 6 points from 35 percent in 2007. Fifty percent oppose making it harder, down 6 points from the earlier survey.
The percentage of those who say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases rose 4 percentage points since last year to 45 percent. Those who say it should be legal declined 7 points to 47 percent.
The shift is largely along partisan lines, the poll found. Among Republicans, there’s been a 7-point decline in support for abortion rights and a 6-point increase in opposition.
“While no single reason for the shift is apparent, the pattern of changes suggests that the election of a pro-choice Democrat as president may be a contributing factor,” Pew Research Center president Andrew Kohut said in a statement.
The survey of 4,013 adults from Aug. 11-27 has a margin of sampling error between 2 and 3.5 percentage points.
