By Lori Adelman • @ladelman • 10 years ago

Chart(s) of the day: Americans consistently support abortion rights, but attitudes vary by region

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you might have the impression that everyone and their mama, no pun intended, wants to slash abortion rights.

Not true, according to recent data collected by the Pew Research Center. In fact, according to a national survey conducted July17-21 among 1,480 adults (that’s sound methodology, folks!), over half of all Americans (54%) say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But as Pew researchers explain it, “while the balance of opinion toward abortion nationwide has remained largely steady over the past 20 years, there are widening disparities in public attitudes on the issue across different regions of the country.”

1 Abortion Views Hold Steady

The researchers go on the specify that “opposition to legal abortion is highest in parts of the South” – including Texas, which recently passed sweeping new abortion restrictions. The South Central region including states like Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Arkansas, is the only one in which opposition to legal abortion has significantly increased since the mid-1990s. By contrast, support for legal abortion remains highest in New England – and the gap between New England and South Central states has widened considerably over the past two decades. View more charts after the jump.

Brooklyn, NY

Lori Adelman started blogging with Feministing in 2008, and now runs partnerships and strategy as a co-Executive Director. She is also the Director of Youth Engagement at Women Deliver, where she promotes meaningful youth engagement in international development efforts, including through running the award-winning Women Deliver Young Leaders Program. Lori was formerly the Director of Global Communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and has also worked at the United Nations Foundation on the Secretary-General's flagship Every Woman Every Child initiative, and at the International Women’s Health Coalition and Human Rights Watch. As a leading voice on women’s rights issues, Lori frequently consults, speaks and publishes on feminism, activism and movement-building. A graduate of Harvard University, Lori has been named to The Root 100 list of the most influential African Americans in the United States, and to Forbes Magazine‘s list of the “30 Under 30” successful mediamakers. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Lori Adelman is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Partnerships.

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