Annual Marist poll finds declining support for key pro-life positions

An annual poll traditionally friendly to anti-abortion advocates shows support for some pro-life positions wavering over the past year, reflecting possible pushback against the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The annual Knights of Columbus/Marist Poll released Wednesday found that 53% of adults surveyed oppose taxpayer funding for abortion within the U.S., down from 60% last year. And 67% said they oppose taxpayer funding of abortions overseas, down from 78% last year.

On Thursday, pollsters did not respond immediately to a request to explain these shifts. In a press release, they emphasized that long-term trends in the poll remained unchanged since the June 2022 ruling.

“Once again, most Americans are steadfast in their belief that abortion should be significantly limited yet laws should include exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother,” said Barbara L. Carvalho, director of the Marist Poll. “This clear trend found in the annual Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll has continued, nearly two years after the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision.”

Mary Ziegler, a leading historian of the legal abortion debate, said the findings echo other surveys that have shown a mounting backlash against the Supreme Court ruling heading into the November general election. That ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health returned jurisdiction over abortion to the states.

She noted that media accounts have highlighted pro-life activists “fighting for perfection” in state-level abortion restrictions since Dobbs, “alienating a lot of people with talk about few or no exceptions for rape or fetal abnormalities.”

“If that’s what people get from the news, they’re going to be turned off,” said Ms. Davis, a law school professor at the University of California, Davis. “Marist wants to say Americans have always been in the middle on abortion and conflicted. In a big way, that’s true, but we’ve also seen substantive movement in polling away from the pro-life side since Dobbs.”

For the second year in a row, Marist asked about support for pro-life pregnancy resource centers. These centers have faced a growing number of vandalism incidents and political attacks from the left since the high court’s June 2022 ruling, which returned jurisdiction over abortion to the states.

This year’s poll found that 83% of Americans support the work of these centers to offer support during pregnancies and after childbirth. That’s down from 91% last year.

Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly noted in a statement that the Catholic fraternal order had raised more than $7 million to support pregnancy resource centers.

“Knights have also funded the purchase of over 1,790 ultrasounds, empowering an estimated 1.5 million mothers to see their unborn babies,” Mr. Kelly said. “The Knights of Columbus will continue to work tirelessly in our mission until abortion becomes unthinkable.”

On other questions, attitudes about abortion showed little movement from previous years.

The poll found that 66% of adults supported allowing abortion only with restrictions, down from 69% last year and 70% two years ago. Another 58% favored women terminating their pregnancies only during the first trimester, consistent with past years of polling.

Continuing other trends, the survey found 84% of respondents said abortion restrictions should allow exceptions for rape, incense or the health of the mother. That included 70% of pro-life respondents.

In more positive news for pro-lifers, 58% of adults surveyed described themselves as pro-choice, down from 61% in the same poll last year. That number had risen from 51% in January 2022, before the high court’s ruling.

All three figures remain stable within the survey’s average going back to December 2012, when 84% described themselves as pro-choice. According to the Knights of Columbus, the tally fluctuates according to the political debates of the moment.

Michael New, a professor of social research at the Catholic University of America and scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, said these findings confirm long-term trends in the Marist polling. 

“The 2024 poll adds to a substantial body of survey data which shows that Americans reject abortion on demand and support for incremental pro-life laws,” Mr. New told The Times. “As thousands of pro-lifers gather in Washington, DC for the March for Life, we should take heart.”

The survey of 1,371 adults, including 1,254 registered voters, was conducted Jan. 8-9 and released ahead of the 51st annual March for Life on Friday, which begins on the National Mall. It was conducted online and by telephone, in English and Spanish, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.