American satisfaction with abortion policies has fallen to the lowest point since 2001 — and more people want laws to become stricter rather than more lenient, a Gallup poll said Monday.
In 2015, only 34 percent of Americans said they were content with current abortion policies. This is the lowest percentage since Gallup started asking the question in 2001.
Forty-eight percent of Americans said they were dissatisfied with the policies.
When these dissatisfied adults were asked whether they wanted abortion laws to be made stricter or less strict, the majority said stricter: 24 percent asked for tougher laws, and 12 percent wanted more lenient laws.
Gallup said the poll of 804 adults showed that Republicans were the most likely to have soured on current abortion policies. That shift in attitude tracked the change from the pro-life administration of President George W. Bush to pro-choice President Obama.
“Satisfaction” with abortion policies reached as high as 44 percent among Republicans in January 2002, Mr. Bush’s first year in office, Gallup analyst Rebecca Riffkin wrote in the Social Issues poll.
However, since 2012, “no more than 29 percent of Republicans have been satisfied with the nation’s abortion policies,” she wrote.
Democrats and independents have been fairly stable in their views during the two administrations, poll data showed.
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.