White Evangelicals Twice as Likely to Want to Ban Abortion

Author - Umn ministry

May 06, 2022

Ahead of a possible decision to rescind Roe v. Wade, Pew Research finds most Americans and most believers hold convictions with exceptions.

As the country awaits a landmark Supreme Court ruling that could overturn Roe v. Wade, Americans are conflicted about abortion. They’re not just in conflict with each other, but in many cases hold varying moral and legal positions in their own minds.

A new report from the Pew Research Center shows that the most common answer to the question of whether or not abortion should be legal remains “it depends.” Even among groups with the strongest positions on the issue—including white evangelical Protestants—only a minority want to legalize or ban abortion outright.

The survey was conducted in March 2022, several weeks prior to the leaked draft opinion that indicated the Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade in its upcoming ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Three-quarters of white evangelicals say abortion should be illegal, with half (53%) allowing for exceptions and 21 percent saying it should be banned in all cases—about the same levels as in recent years.

White evangelicals were more likely than other faith groups and twice as likely as Americans overall to say abortion should be illegal.

White evangelicals are also far more likely to call abortion morally wrong. According to Pew, 81 percent of white evangelicals see it as morally wrong compared to 46 percent of Americans overall.

Yet more than half of evangelicals who think abortion is immoral say there are some cases where it still should be legal.

“Across both political parties and all major Christian subgroups”—including Republicans and White evangelicals, the report said—“there are substantially more people who say that there are situations where abortion should still be legal despite ...