One event of last week that passed almost unnoticed in the U.S. as a whole was the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade. Incredibly, most of the population cannot personally remember that day (generally those under about 40 years of age). That historic day is history. It is distant. It is increasing irrelevant in our society. It is impersonal.
According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center last year (August 2008), a slim majority of the public (54%) says abortion should be legal in all (17%) or most (37%) cases, while 41 percent say abortion should be illegal in all (15%) or most (26%) cases.
The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by Pew Research in 2007, shows how religious affiliation influences views on abortion. The results show what percentage of members of selected demographic or religious groups believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases:
Jewish, 88 %
Mainline Protestant, 62 %
Catholic, 48 %
Muslim, 48 %
African American, 47 %
Evangelical, 33 %
Mormon, 27 %
Jehovah’s Witness, 16 %
For further details about these and other studies, go to pewforum.org.