The trend has been across all age groups: Even in the so-called silent generation (born between 1928 and 1945) approval has nearly doubled, from 21% in 2001 to 41% in 2016. It’s also gone up regardless of religious or political affiliation, and race. Even amongst supporters of the Republican party, which, from the mid-1970s on has aligned itself with the Christian right, approval for gay marriage went up from 21% in 2001 to 40% in 2017.
But while the pro-LGBT message has gained support, that’s not the case for abortion. Though a majority of Americans (56%) still think it should be legal in all or most cases, that percentage has gone down from 60% in 1995, and has been even lower for some of the intervening period. [...]
“It is a very interesting question that no one has been able to answer fully that I know of” says Sarah Cowan, a New York University sociologist who researches attitudes towards abortion. One reason, she says, is that LGBT people are increasingly visible: The vast majority of Americans say they know someone belonging to a sexual minority. The more people feel directly connected, the more open their attitude, which in turn makes it easier to come out. Relationships are also something that comes up frequently in casual conversation. Ending a pregnancy—though much more frequent than homosexuality—typically does not. Moreover, Cowan notes “the consequences of concealing [abortion] are likely less than those of concealing who you love, whom you’re attracted to, how you spent Saturday night.” [...]
Abortion is the complete opposite. Choice is at the core of the right to abortion; deciding when and whether to become a mother is, for pro-choice advocates, a fundamental expression of human freedom. And so, for abortion opponents, the blame is fully a woman’s. “I don’t see the rhetoric about abortion in America leaving behind choice and victim,” Cowan says.
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