White evangelical Protestants in the U.S. are the only faith group with a majority approving the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, according to a Pew Research Center report published July 6.
Around one-in-four (27%) of WEPs strongly or somewhat disapproved of “the Supreme Court’s decision that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion and that abortion laws can be set by states,” while 71% strongly or somewhat approve.
By comparison, 51% of Catholics, 52% of white non-evangelical Protestants, 68% of Black Protestants and 77% of the religiously unaffiliated strongly / somewhat disapprove of the ruling.
Overall, 57% of all U.S. adults strongly / somewhat disapprove of the ruling, with 41% strong / somewhat approving the decision.
Abortion views have changed little since 1995, when 60% of adults said abortion should be legal in all / most cases and 38% said it should be illegal in all / most cases. Now, the levels are 62% and 36%, respectively.
Of the 62% who say it should be legal, 29% say “legal in all cases” and 33% “legal in most cases.” Of the 36% who say it should be illegal, 28% say “illegal in most cases” and 8% “legal in all cases.”
WEPs are also the only faith group with a majority (73%) who say abortion should be illegal in all / most cases, with 20% saying “in all cases” and 53% “in most cases.”
By comparison, 39% of Catholics, 38% of white non-evangelical Protestants, 24% of Black Protestants and 16% of the religiously unaffiliated say abortion should be illegal in all / cases.
Pew’s findings track closely with a report published on July 7 by Public Religion Research Institute.
PRRI’s survey found that 65% of all U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with WEPs being the only faith group without a majority holding this view.
Only 25% of WEPs said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 84% of the religiously unaffiliated, 82% of non-Christian faith traditions, 75% of Black Protestants, 75% of Hispanic Catholics, 69% of white mainline Protestants and 64% of white Catholics.
Between 2010 and 2022, all faith groups saw an increase in the percentage of adherents who said abortion should be legal in all / most cases, save for white evangelical Protestants.
Similarly, all faith traditions had a majority of respondents say they opposed the overturning of Roe v. Wade, save for WEPs.
The full Pew report is available here and the topline results are available here. The overall margin of error is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.
The full PRRI report, which has a 2.3 percentage point margin of error, is available here.
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