# US acceptance of abortion on the decline?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-acceptance-of-abortion-on-the-decline/258029
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 2, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-acceptance-of-abortion-on-the-decline/258029 "2004-08-02T21:29:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-acceptance-of-abortion-on-the-decline/258029/1 "2004-08-02T21:29:24Z")
I was chatting with a friend over lunch today about a t-shirt linked to on fark that stated “I had an abortion” and that the thought process behind it was to remove the stigma that surrounds abortion (in a nutshell).
He said that abortion in America is becoming less and less accepted. I found that hard to believe. He said it’s a fact and that I could “look it up”. I couldn’t find anything, so I’m asking the teemings. Is there any unpolluted\* proof that acceptance of abortion in the USA has been on the decline? (let’s say since 1973 and Roe V Wade).
Thanks.
\*(for lack of a better term)
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### Author:  [@adirondack\_mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adirondack_mike)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-acceptance-of-abortion-on-the-decline/258029/2 "2004-08-02T22:37:30Z")
Here is some [polling data.](http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm)
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### Author:  [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-acceptance-of-abortion-on-the-decline/258029/3 "2004-08-02T22:42:36Z")
It depends on who you ask.
Pro-abortionists can come up with statistics that prove that most Americans think abortion is just great, and the “few” who are against it beat their wives regularly and are illiterate.
Pro-lifers can find polls that say that most Americans think abortion should be limited to extreme cases, and the only ones who are for it are the ones making money off of the abortion industry or puppy eating feminists, etc. etc.
Pro-lifers will reject the polls the pro-abortionists cite and vice versa; both sides saying that the other side’s information is flawed.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-acceptance-of-abortion-on-the-decline/258029/4 "2004-08-03T00:47:16Z")
Yeah, and also how you ask it.
Apparently a lot of overlapping people will say “no” to both of the following, or some milder, more centrist variants thereof:
a) Do you believe a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion should be subject to governmental interference?
b) Do you believe it should be legal for an abortionist doctor to kill a pregnant woman’s fetus if she decides she doesn’t want it?
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### Author:  [@mrunlucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrunlucky)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2004, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-acceptance-of-abortion-on-the-decline/258029/5 "2004-08-03T04:54:16Z")
This is a useful link about the use and abuse of statistics and polling:
[http://www.freedomkeys.com/polling.htm](http://www.freedomkeys.com/polling.htm)
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2004, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-acceptance-of-abortion-on-the-decline/258029/6 "2004-08-03T12:34:30Z")
A wag, due to the rise of alternative media such as Fox news and talk radio shows, it is more common to hear the Pro-Life view point and people are more willing to talk about it openly then hide their feelings for fear of being seen as ‘not with it’. This may lead to the apperence of the tide turning, and it may actually swing a few who just like to go along with the crowd, but I don’t think that much has changed.
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-acceptance-of-abortion-on-the-decline/258029/7 "2004-08-03T14:43:09Z")
I had the impression that there are fewer and fewer abortion clinics all the time, in America, perhaps because fewer and fewer doctors want to risk all of the protesting crap.