Public opinion
See also: Societal attitudes towards abortion , United States pro-choice movement and United States pro-life movement
Leading up to the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in January 2013, a majority of Americans believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal . [ 74 ] As well, approximately 70% of respondents oppose Roe v. Wade being overturned, which is the highest percentage on this question since 1989. [ 74 ] A poll by the Pew Research Center yielded similar results. [ 75 ] Moreover, 48% of Republicans opposed overturning Roe , compared to 46% who supported overturning it. [ 75 ]
Gallup notes that abortion attitudes are shifting. Gallup declared in May 2010 that more Americans identifying as "pro-life" is "the new normal", while also noting that there had been no increase in opposition to abortion. It suggested that political polarization may have prompted more Republicans to call themselves "pro-life". [ 76 ] The terms "pro-choice" and "pro-life" do not always reflect a political view or fall along a binary; in one Public Religion Research Institute poll, seven in ten Americans described themselves as "pro-choice" while almost two-thirds described themselves as "pro-life". The same poll found that 56% of Americans were in favor of legal access to abortion in all or some cases.