Three-quarters of U.S. Catholics say the church should permit birth control, about half favor same-sex marriage and just a third (33%) say homosexual behavior is a sin.
See the latest Pew Research Center reports and data on views toward abortion in the United States and around the world.
Most Americans think that having an abortion is a moral issue, but the public is much less likely to see other issues involving human embryos – such as stem cell research or in vitro fertilization – as a matter of morality.
Forty years after Roe v. Wade, the legal battles over abortion are far from over. In 2013 alone, state legislatures have enacted more than 40 new provisions aimed at restricting abortion access.
While just over half of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, there remain regional differences. Opposition to legal abortion remains highest in the South and lowest in the New England.
Abortion opponents in the Texas state legislature have been busy this week trying to pass a bill aimed at banning most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The proposal, which passed the House on Monday, is now facing a Democratic filibuster in the state Senate. If the Senate approves it before the end of the legislative session at midnight and Republican Gov. Rick Perry (as promised) signs it, Texas would become the 13th state in recent years to enact such a restriction.
After months of anticipation, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has introduced a proposal that seeks to guarantee access to abortion in the third-largest U.S. state.
Over the past year or so, several dozen business owners have sued the federal government over a provision in the 2010 Affordable Care Act that requires many employers to include free coverage of contraceptive services in their employees’ health insurance plans.
The two states consider measures that run counter to a recent, nationwide trend toward imposing more restrictions on abortion.
On Feb. 1, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed new rules that would exempt certain religious organizations from a new mandate to offer free contraception services to women employees.
Graphic showing the views on abortion and Roe v. Wade.
