Majorities across most faith groups in poll say abortion should be legal -- except these 4

Natalie Demaree, Miami Herald on Apr 1, 2025

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A majority of people in most religious traditions support abortion being legal in the U.S., as do most Americans, a new poll found.

However, four major religious groups — Hispanic Protestants, Latter-day Saints, white evangelical Protestants and Jehovah’s Witnesses — for the most part believe abortion should be illegal, according to an April 1 Public Religion Research Institute poll.

The poll of 22,260 U.S. adults was conducted March 13 through Dec. 2, 2024 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.84 percentage points, researchers said.

Out of the four religious groups that do not have majorities supporting abortion legality, Hispanic Protestants showed the highest percentage of support at 44%, according to the poll. Thirty-five percent of those polled said abortion should be illegal in most cases and 18% percent of the group said it should be illegal in all cases.

The percentage of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, who said abortion should be legal dropped when compared with Hispanic Protestants, with 29% saying so, according to the poll. Sixty-four percent of Latter-day Saints said abortion should be illegal in most cases and 5% said it should be illegal in all cases.

Most white evangelical Protestants also said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, with 51% saying it should be unlawful in most cases and 19% all cases should be unlawful, per the results.

Fifty-three percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses did not support abortion legality in most or all cases, while 22% did, according to the poll. Twenty-four percent of respondents who identified as Jehovah’s Witnesses did not respond to this question, however.

Of religious traditions that did support abortion legality, Buddhists (84%), Unitarian Universalists (83%), other non-Christians (83%) and Jewish Americans (79%) showed the most support, according to the poll.

Despite the lack of support for abortion legality within the four groups, the poll found that at least half of all religious groups — excluding Jehovah’s Witnesses (40%) — are against laws that make access to abortion pills by mail illegal.

The poll also found a strong correlation between Americans who rarely or never attend religious services and support for abortion being legal.

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