Abortion has emerged as an issue in the 2012 presidential race, following Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akins’ controversial comments about abortion and “legitimate rape.” In recent years, narrow majorities of the public have consistently said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The Democratic Party is widely favored over the GOP on the issue of abortion. At the same time, however, abortion is viewed as a much more important issue by voters opposed to legal abortion than by its supporters.

Read the full analysis.

Public opinion has shifted since the last two presidential campaigns on a pair of contentious social issues — gun control and gay marriage, according to the latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted April 4-15. Americans have become more conservative on gun control and more liberal on gay marriage.

On gun control, 49% of Americans say it is more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns, while 45% say it is more important to control gun ownership. From 1993 through 2008, majorities had said it was more important to control gun ownership than to protect gun rights, but opinion became more divided since 2009 after the election of Barack Obama.

The public is divided over gay marriage: 47% favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, while 43% are opposed. But that contrasts to the attitudes of Americans in 2008 when 39% favored and 51% opposed gay marriage. In 2004, 60% of the public opposed gay marriage.

Read the full report which includes findings on these subjects:

• Race, gender and partisan differences over gun rights
• Whites, blacks and gay marriage
• Abortion

Slideshow: Changing Attitudes on Gay Marriage

A new Pew Research Center study suggests this pattern may well continue in 2012. Millennial voters are inclined to back President Barack Obama by a wide margin in a potential matchup against former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, while Silent generation voters are solidly behind Romney. Baby Boomers and Generation X voters, who are the most anxious about the uncertain economic times, are on the fence about a second term for Obama.

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At the same time, the polling identifies potential fissures

at both ends of the age spectrum that may affect these patterns. Older

Republican-oriented voters, unlike younger people, rate Social Security as a

top voting issue. While they favor the GOP on most issues, this is not the case

for Social Security. Younger Democratic-leaning voters continue to support

Obama at much higher levels than do older generations. But Obama’s job ratings

have fallen steeply among this group, as well as among older generations, since

early 2009. Perhaps more ominously for Obama, Millennials are much less engaged

in politics than they were at this stage in the 2008 campaign.

Read the full report for more information on these subjects:

• How attitudes of different generations have been shaped by social and political trends
• The generational age gap and the 2012 elections
• Views of Obama and the political parties
• Views of the nation
• Generations and the Great Recession
• Views on entitlement programs
• Views of government
• Domestic and foreign policy views

The public remains deeply frustrated with the federal government, but fewer Americans say they are angry at government than did so last fall. Overall, the percentage saying they are angry with the federal government has fallen from 23% last September to 14% today, with much of the decline coming among Republicans and Tea Party supporters.

While anger at government has subsided, the public expresses no greater taste for political compromise today than it did last fall. As political leaders head into a tough political debate over the budget, 54% say they like elected officials who stick to their positions, while 40% prefer officials who make compromises with people they disagree with. This is virtually identical to the balance of opinion among registered voters last September.

By roughly two-to-one (63% vs. 32%), more Republicans say they like elected officials who stick to their positions rather than those who make compromises. About half of independents (53%) prefer politicians who stick to their positions compared with 41% who like elected officials who make compromises with people they disagree with. Democrats are evenly divided — 48% like elected officials who stick to their positions, 46% like those who compromise.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Feb. 22-Mar. 1 among 1,504 adults, finds a modest recovery in public trust in government from historic lows last year. Yet even with this uptick, the general mood remains overwhelmingly
negative.

Just 29% say they can trust the government in Washington to do what is right just about always or most of the time, up from 22% last March. About seven-in-ten (69%) say they trust the government only some of the time or never, compared with 76% a year ago.

The proportion of Republicans saying they can trust the government always or most of the time has increased from 13% to 24% over the past year; opinions among Democrats are unchanged over this period, at 34%.

The public continues to express negative views of Congress, as well as Republican and Democratic congressional leaders. Just 34% say they have a favorable opinion of Congress, up slightly from 26% a year ago; a majority (57%) has an unfavorable view. Comparable percentages say they approve of the job performance of Republican (36%) and Democratic (33%) congressional leaders.

By contrast, Barack Obama’s job ratings remain positive. Currently, 51% approve of Barack Obama’s job performance while 39% disapprove. That is little changed from early February, but Obama’s ratings have shown significant improvement since last fall, when about as many approved as disapproved.

The survey finds a continuing rise in support for same-sex marriage since 2009. Currently, 45% say they favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally while 46% are opposed. In Pew Research surveys conducted in 2010, 42% favored and 48% opposed gay marriage and in 2009, just 37% backed same-sex marriage while 54% were opposed.

Over the same period, there has been movement toward a liberal position on abortion. In 2009, for the first time in many years, the public was evenly divided over whether abortion should be legal or illegal in all or most cases. But support for legal abortion has recovered and now stands at about the same level as in 2008 (55% then, 54% today).

Independents have become more supportive of both gay marriage and legal abortion since 2009. Roughly half of independents (51%) now favor same-sex marriage, up from 37% in 2009. And 58% of independents say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared with 47% in Pew Research Center surveys two years ago.

The public’s overall views of labor unions have changed little through the lengthy stalemate between Wisconsin’s governor and the state’s public employee unions over collective bargaining rights. About half (47%) say they have a favorable opinion of labor unions compared with 39% who have an unfavorable opinion. In early February, 45% expressed a favorable opinion of unions and 41% said they had an unfavorable view. However, liberal Democrats and people in union households are more likely to say they have a very favorable opinion of labor unions than they were just weeks ago.

For more on public attitudes toward labor unions, see Pew Research’s Feb. 17 report. For more on views of the showdown in Wisconsin between the governor and public employee unions, see this report, released Feb. 28.

Continue reading the full report — including the topline questionnaire and survey methodology — at people-press.org, for an in-depth look at:

• Trust in government
• Views on political compromise
• Attitudes toward gay marriage, abortion, gun control and marijuana legalization
• Opinions of labor unions

Substantial numbers of Americans continue to say their religious beliefs have been influential in shaping their views about social issues, including abortion and same-sex marriage. But far fewer cite religion as a top influence on their opinions about several other social and political issues, including how the government should deal with immigration, the environment and poverty.

Despite the fact that many religious leaders have been outspoken advocates for immigration reform, just 7% of adults who take a position on immigration say that religion is the most important influence on their views on this issue. About one-in-four churchgoers (24%) say the clergy at their places of worship have spoken out about immigration, nearly the same as in 2006. About half of those who hear about immigration in church say their clergy are favorable to immigrants and immigration, but nearly one-quarter are hearing anti-immigration messages.

In contrast with the issue of immigration, 35% say religion is the top influence on their thinking about same-sex marriage, including fully 60% among those who oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally. More than four-in-ten (44%) hear clergy speak out about homosexuality in church, with the overwhelming majority hearing negative messages about homosexuality. On the issue of abortion, 26% overall say religion is the most important influence on their opinion, including 45% among abortion opponents.

The death penalty is another issue on which a substantial number of Americans cite religion as a key influence. Nearly one-in-five (19%) say religion is the most important factor in their thinking, including about one-third (32%) among death penalty opponents. Just 13% of death penalty supporters say religion is the key influence on their opinion.

The vast majority of regular churchgoers (88%) say they hear about the issue of hunger and poverty from their clergy, but just 10% cite religion as the top influence on their opinions about government’s role in providing assistance to the poor. Nearly half (47%) say their clergy speak out on the environment, almost always to encourage environmental protection. But just 6% say their own views on the environment are shaped primarily by their religious beliefs.

These are among the key findings of a survey exploring religion’s connection with opinions about current social and political issues. The survey was conducted July 21-Aug. 5 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. It interviewed 3,003 respondents reached on landlines and cell phones in both English and Spanish.

For most voters, the economy and jobs outpace all other issues in the election this fall, and religious voters are no exception.

As previously reported nine-in-ten voters (90%) rate the economy as very important, and 88% do so for jobs; the numbers are nearly identical among all major religious groups, including people who are unaffiliated with a religion. Health care also rates near the top, with 78% saying it will be very important. Terrorism, the budget deficit and taxes are also seen as important, especially by white evangelicals and black Protestants.

In contrast, hot-button social and cultural issues fall at or near the bottom of the list, even for relatively conservative religious groups such as white evangelical Protestants.

Though both issues are among the least important for evangelicals, abortion (61% very important) and same-sex marriage (46%) are more important to evangelicals than to other religious groups. About four-in-ten voters (43%) overall rate abortion as very important and about one-third (32%) say this about same-sex marriage.

White evangelicals also stand out for the relatively high importance they place on immigration: 67% say immigration is a very important issue, compared with 60% among Catholics, 56% among white mainline Protestants, 50% among the unaffiliated and 48% among black Protestants.

Continue reading the full report at pewforum.org.

When health care opponents are asked in an open-ended question to describe their main reason for opposing the congressional proposals, just 3% raise the issue of abortion funding.

Even when they are asked to choose among a list of reasons, fewer than one-in-ten (8%) opponents of health care legislation say the most important reason for their opposition is the possibility that government money might pay for abortions. Although a majority of health reform opponents (56%) cite the abortion issue as one of the major factors for them, far greater percentages cite concerns about big government, costs and the impact of reform on people’s own coverage.

The new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds the public now divided over the health care proposals in Congress, with 42% in favor and 39% opposed. Earlier this month, before the House voted on its bill, 38% supported the reform proposals and 47% were opposed. The current poll was conducted Nov. 12-15 among 1,003 adults on landlines and cell phones.

A 55% majority of Americans say that abortion should not be included as a guaranteed medical benefit if the government health care reform plan passes. Only about half as many (28%) say it should be included. The public was more evenly divided in a comparable Gallup survey conducted during the health care debate in 1994. At that time 42% said abortion should be covered by government benefits while 49% said it should not be. More than seven-in-ten (72%) of those who oppose the legislation say coverage of abortion should not be included in government benefits. Even among Americans who favor health care reform, a 46% plurality says abortion should not be included in government benefits, while 35% say it should be.

But when respondents in the survey were asked to explain, in their own words, the main reasons for supporting or opposing the reform proposals, few brought up abortion funding. Supporters of reform cite the expansion of coverage to the uninsured (32%), the need for change (17%) and the need to control costs (14%) as most important to them. Opponents of reform mainly cite either the cost (27%) or the increased role that government would play (27%). Other reasons for opposition include the complexity of the legislation (8%) or skepticism that reforms won’t work (8%). Few opponents of reform — just 3% — volunteer abortion as a principal reason for their opposition.

Even when respondents were specifically asked about government funding for abortion in the context of health care reform, the issue ranks at the bottom of a list of possible reasons for opposing the legislation. While 56% of opponents say the issue of government funds possibly paying for abortions is a “major reason” they oppose the bill, that ranks far below other arguments against the bill. Fully 85% say that “too much government involvement in health care” is a major reason for their opposition, and nearly as many (78%) say this about the expense of health care reform. Seven-in-ten (70%) say concern that their own health care might suffer is a major reason they oppose the legislation, and nearly as many (67%) say the possibility that reform might cover illegal immigrants is a major reason for opposing it.

White evangelical Protestants (74%) and white Catholics (72%) were more likely than white mainline Protestant opponents of reform to say that abortion funding was a major reason for their views. But even within these religious groups, larger shares list the expansion of government as a major factor. Nearly all opponents of the legislation cited multiple concerns as major reasons for their position, and not one cited abortion as the only major reason they opposed the bills before Congress. In other words, every single person who said abortion funding was a major reason that they opposed the bill also cited one or more other major reasons.

When asked to choose the single most important issue from a list of possible reasons, 8% of opponents selected abortion funding. This translates into just 3% of all Americans who both oppose the legislation and say abortion funding is the main reason for their position. Among opponents, concern about too much government involvement topped the list, with 38% saying it was the most important reason, followed by 27% who cited the expense of reform. Fewer cited the risk to their own health care (14%) or the possibility that illegal immigrants might be covered (7%).

Abortion funding is rarely cited as the key factor behind opposition to the health care bills even among white Catholics and evangelical Protestants. While 84% of white evangelical Protestants say they oppose allowing abortions to be included in government medical benefits, just 10% of those who oppose the bill say this is the most important reason of the five factors asked about. Similarly, 63% of white Catholics oppose the idea of government funding going toward abortions, but just 11% of white Catholics who oppose health legislation say this is the biggest factor in their position. And just 4% of the white evangelicals and 3% of the white Catholics who oppose the health legislation before Congress volunteer abortion as their main concern in an open-ended question.

The debate over abortion funding and health care flared up just prior to the reform bill’s passage by the House on Nov. 7. Yet, if anything, opposition to health reform has declined somewhat since earlier this month, before the House passed its version. Currently, 39% oppose the health care bills being debated in Congress, down 8 points, while 42% favor them. But a significant number of Americans remain uncertain about the proposals — nearly one-in-five (19%) say they don’t know how they feel about the legislation at this point.

View the topline and survey methodology at people-press.org.

Learn more about the debate over abortion at pewforum.org.