- Support for abortion has increased slightly since 2020, with nearly half of Americans now identifying as pro-abortion, while the pro-life share remains unchanged, a recent survey found.
- Only one in four Americans say reducing abortions is a priority, with higher concern among religious, conservative, married, and rural respondents.
- Many respondents are open to initiatives aimed at reducing abortion, with two in five saying the proposed strategies made them more hopeful abortion numbers could decline. Half of respondents think that valuing empathy and dignity could help reduce abortions.
A recently conducted survey shed light on the current abortion landscape in the U.S., finding that nearly half of Americans are pro-abortion, about three in 10 are pro-life, and four in 10 say that several new proposed initiatives would help reduce the number of abortions.
Pain Insights Inc., conducted the survey earlier this year among more than 2,000 adults. The survey began by asking respondents to compare their views on abortion five years ago — before Dobbs — with their current opinions. In 2020, about 45% of Americans were pro-abortion and roughly 32% were pro-life, while the rest of respondents were neutral. In 2025, the same share of Americans were pro-life, but about 48% said they were pro-abortion.
Just 25% of respondents — generally Republicans, conservatives, people with social support, religious adults, married adults, parents, and those living in rural areas — said it was somewhat or very important to them to reduce the number of abortions in the U.S.
Of religious adults, Protestants were very likely to support reducing abortions (65%), while Catholics were less so (44%). Catholics who attended Mass several times a month were more likely to feel that reducing abortions is important (58%).
The survey also gave respondents a list of 29 potential initiatives that could reduce abortion and asked them whether they thought the strategies would be successful. Examples of initiatives include a youth social media strategy to feed teens pro-life content and the creation of a “Catholic Pregnancy Care Pathway” that would foster collaborations between Catholic hospitals and pregnancy resource centers.
Four in 10 said that after reading the initiatives, they were more or much more inclined to say reducing abortion is possible, and nearly five in 10 were neutral. Only roughly one in 10 said they thought the initiatives made them less inclined to believe that reducing abortion is possible. However, about half somewhat or strongly agreed that abortion could be reduced with an approach that values “empathy and dignity.”
The initiative that respondents said would have the most impact on reducing abortion was highlighting “preventative measures and sex education.” Pro-life respondents said the most effective measure would be publicizing personal pro-life stories or anecdotes about regretting having or performing an abortion, while pro-abortion respondents said that the most powerful strategy would be to couple the personal stories with promotions of faith-based pregnancy resource centers.
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