Young Americans Object To Abortion

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Young Americans Object To Abortion

Special Report - January 29, 2010
As a record number of Americans prepared to travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in the 37th annual March for Life, a new survey found nearly six in 10 young Americans consider abortion to be “morally wrong.” The report, released January 21, found that the Millenial generation of 18–29 year olds objects to the immorality of abortion at a higher rate than the general American public—58 percent to 56 percent, respectively. Generation X (30–44 years old) and the Greatest Generation (over 65 years old) object at the highest rate with at least 60 percent of them considering abortion to be “morally wrong.”

The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s fraternal benefit society, and the Marist Institute for Public Opinion conducted the survey from December 23, 2009 through January 4, 2010 by asking 2,243 Americans, “Regardless of whether or not you think it should be legal, do you believe that in general, each one of the following issues is morally acceptable or morally wrong?” More than half of all Americans and each individual generation consider abortion to be “morally wrong.” While a substantial majority of Millenials are pro-life, this demographic is also the most likely to consider abortion “morally acceptable” by a 10 point margin over all Americans (28 percent to 19 percent, respectively). Baby Boomers, ages 45–64, are the most likely to not consider abortion a moral issue at all (29 percent).

The Knights of Columbus/Marist survey has been tracking increasingly pro-life sentiments among the American public since fall of 2008. These results are similar to the ones found in recent Gallup and Pew surveys about which we have also reported.

“Americans of all ages—and younger people in even greater numbers than their parents—see abortion as something morally wrong,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in a press release. “Advances in technology show clearly . . . that an unborn child is completely a human being. That, coupled with the large number of Americans who know one of the many people who has been negatively affected by abortion are certainly two of the reasons that Americans are increasingly uncomfortable with Roe v. Wade’s legacy of abortion, and with abortion generally.”

Anderson added, “The majority of Americans now understand that abortion has consequences, and that those consequences are not good.”