Half of Americans believe that abortion is morally wrong, according to a new poll, greater than the percentage who said definitively that it is morally acceptable.

In a Gallup poll released this week, abortion remained one of the most divisive issues in America, with 50 percent of respondents calling the practice morally impermissible and 42 percent saying that it was an acceptable medical procedure.

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The poll showed a wide gap between respondents who self-identified as very liberal or very conservative, with 73 percent of very liberal respondents calling the practice morally permissible and 23 percent of very conservative respondents saying the same.

Other issues that most heavily divided the two political camps included doctor-assisted suicide (supported by 72 percent of very liberal Americans and 36 percent of very conservative Americans) and relations between consenting gay adults, which are considered morally permissible by 81 percent of very liberal respondents but 45 percent of very conservative respondents.

The poll follows restrictive abortion laws passed in several states, including a ban in Georgia on the practice after a fetal heartbeat is detected as well as a law in neighboring Alabama that would effectively ban all abortions, even in the case of rape or incest. Alabama's ban is considered unenforceable by state officials.

Gallup's poll was conducted between May 1-12 and contacted 1,009 U.S. adults living in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.