Look for politics to shift as young people increasingly support abortion rights Compared to seniors, young Americans see abortion as a health care rather than moral issue and are more likely to know someone who's had an abortion.

Carolyn J. Davis | Opinion contributor

Though they are frequently met with judicial opposition, anti-abortion lawmakers continue to test boundaries in their attempts to severely or totally outlaw abortion access in their states. Americans themselves are split on abortion, and attitudes toward the legality of the procedure have remained remarkably stable over the last two decades.

But a new poll released by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), where I work as a contributing researcher and organizational strategist, shows that the general stability of public attitudes is only part of the story when it comes to whether and how Americans are shifting on abortion. Over the past few years, young Americans have actually become more supportive of legal and widely available abortion — expanding the generational gap and suggesting that anti-abortion lawmakers are increasingly out of step with younger voters on this issue.

When asked about whether their views on abortion have changed in recent years, nearly three times as many young Americans (age 18-29) say they have become more supportive of abortion rights rather than more opposed (25% vs. 9%). Conversely, seniors (age 65 and up) are twice as likely to say they have become more opposed (12%) than more supportive (6%).

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Data from the PRRI American Values Atlas, based on interviews with more than 40,000 Americans every year, backs this up. In 2014, 57% of young Americans said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 50% of seniors who said the same — a seven-point generation gap. In PRRI’s most recent survey, conducted in March 2018, the generation gap doubles to 14 points: Nearly two-thirds (65%) of young Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while seniors hold relatively steady at 51%.

While the underlying dynamics for these shifts are complex, the data point to a few potential factors. First, young Americans are significantly less likely than seniors to oppose abortion for moral reasons. Just 44% of young Americans say abortion goes against their personal beliefs, compared to 60% of Americans over 65. Second, these differences may also be linked to personal experiences. Young adults are almost twice as likely as seniors to report having a close friend who has had an abortion (30% vs. 17%, respectively).

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Moreover, it is possible that young adults are understanding abortion as a health care issue first, rather than as a moral or political litmus test. Nearly seven in 10 (69%) young people, compared to 46% of seniors, agree that at least some health care professionals in their community should provide legal abortions. And a majority (52%) of young adults say abortion services should be covered by most health care plans, compared to 42% of seniors,.

The youngest generation of adults is larger than the Baby Boom generation, and recent movements like the Women’s March, the #MeToo movement and youth-led calls for gun reform have brought record numbers of young people into political activism. If this generational polarization continues, it has the potential to reshape the debates around abortion and women’s health care as younger Americans emerge as political actors.

Carolyn J. Davis is a contributing researcher and organizational strategist for PRRI.