Public Opinion
See also: Societal attitudes towards abortion, United States pro-choice movement, and United States pro-life movementGenerally speaking, in the United States induced abortions become more controversial the later they are performed into the pregnancy.
Gallup notes that abortion attitudes are shifting. Gallup declared in May 2010 that more Americans identifying as "pro-life" is "the new normal", while also noting that there had been no increase in opposition to abortion. It suggested that political polarization may have prompted more Republicans to call themselves "pro-life". The terms "pro-choice" and "pro-life" do not always reflect a political view or fall along a binary; in one Public Religion Research Institute poll, seven in ten Americans described themselves as "pro-choice" while almost two-thirds described themselves as "pro-life".
| Date of poll | Pro-life | Pro-choice | Mixed / neither | Don't know what terms mean | No opinion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011, May 5–8 | 45% | 49% | 3% | 2% | 2% |
| 2010, March 26–28 | 46% | 45% | 4% | 2% | 3% |
| 2009, November 20–22 | 45% | 48% | 2% | 2% | 3% |
| 2009, May 7–10 | 51% | 42% | - | 0 | 7% |
| 2008, September 5–7 | 43% | 51% | 2% | 1% | 3% |
Read more about this topic: Abortion In The United States
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“Public Opinion ... an attempt to organise the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
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—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)