Do Americans become less interested in having a say in other peoples' lives during an economic upturn? Gallup may have identified such a trend.
In the last week, Gallup released survey results on the pro-life/pro-choice and physician-assisted suicide topics — both lightning rods for controversy.
And just as the physician-assisted suicide survey showed a greater degree of either tolerance toward others, or a lack of interest in how others run their lives, so did the pro-choice/pro-life survey.
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For the first time since 2008, Gallup reported, a strong majority (in the context of this very divisive issue) supported the pro-choice position.
The numbers: 50 percent said they supported the pro-choice position, 44 percent pro-life.
This is still nowhere near the 1995 results, when 56 percent identified with the pro-choice side and 33 percent said they supported the pro-life position. In fact, in the last 20 years, support has consistently been greater for the pro-choice side than for pro-life, with the pro-lifers only gaining the upper hand in 2008. And even that margin tended to be a slim one, with the exception of the 50 percent vs. 41 percent edge to pro-lifers in 2012.
Gallup said women were more likely to be pro-choice than were men; the 2015 gap was the largest ever, at 8 percent. In 2010, more men supported the pro-choice position than did women (47 percent to 42 percent) but that edge was wiped out a year later and the gap has widened since.
By age, the only clear pattern appears among people 55 and older, who have consistently reported being less inclined to support the pro-choice position than have younger respondents. Those 18 to 34 years of age have tended to report the strongest support for pro-choice over time.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
