

Yolanda Pascua, left, and Laekin Rogers, get married at the Salt Lake County clerk's office in Salt Lake City Monday, Oct. 6, 2014. Same-sex couples in Utah are celebrating after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for gay marriages to begin in this state and 30 others. The high court on Monday rejected an appeal from Utah and four other states that had sought to bar weddings between gay couples. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Across the 50 states, two separate and very divergent social movements are progressing apace.

1) The courts and Democratic legislatures are legalizing gay marriage.

2) Republicans and social conservatives are increasing abortion restrictions.

Practically speaking, it would appear that both pro-gay marriage forces on the left and anti-abortion rights forces on the right are winning at the same time. And that's true -- although largely these things are happening in different states.

But which party does the American public side with on these issues more?

Well, politically speaking at least, the answer is clearly the Democrats. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Americans side with Democrats as a party on both abortion and gay marriage -- and by large margins on both.

Nearly half of Americans (48 percent) say the Democratic Party is closer to their opinion on abortion, while 33 percent say it's the GOP. That's a 15-point gap.

On gay marriage, it's about the same, with 48 percent siding with Democrats and 31 percent picking the GOP.

Of course, it's been clear for a while in which direction the whole gay marriage thing was heading, and the new poll shows Americans support 56-38 the Supreme Court's recent decision to allow gay marriage to move forward in several states.

Abortion, by contrast, has long split the American people by pretty consistent margins -- and often pretty evenly between those supporting abortion rights and those opposing them.

At the same time, the new abortion gap between the parties is actually the biggest on record. The chart below combines Post-ABC, Gallup, Kaiser, AP and Newsweek polling.

And it's not just abortion and gay marriage, either.

As the chart below shows, Democrats are also winning on women's issues like contraception, as well as equal pay for women.

That's a big reason you've seen Democrats in several key Senate races try to marginalize Republicans for their views on social issues -- particularly when it comes to ones involving women.

As the chart also shows, though, these issues aren't really priorities in the 2014 election. So for Democrats, it's nice to be ahead on stuff like this, but as the Senate race in Colorado shows, these issues have their limits.