Pro-choicers are at 2008 levels, still way below 1996 levels

Gallup notes that in May 2012, pro-lifers made up 50 percent of respondents—a full nine percent more than pro-choicers at the time. And, reports Gallup, the latest poll shows a downward trend in the percentage of men who identify as pro-choice:

The recent increase in the pro-choice side has occurred almost equally among men and women. However, for men, this has not compensated for the larger drop in their identification as pro-choice in 2012. As a result, a slight gender gap has emerged over the last three years.

Plus, fewer Americans are pro-choice today than in 1996, when 56 percent said they were pro-choice and only 33 percent said they were pro-life:

Graph via Gallup.

As you can see from the chart, views on allowing abortion full-stop (as in, without asking if people would agree with allowing late-term abortions or under other circumstances) trended toward the more conservative after 1996. In 1998, Gallup Poll’s managing editor at the time analyzed that trend in a paper published in the Public Perspective. She wrote that this change was the first of its kind:

“… Opinion on the issue shifted in a sustained way to the more conservative position for the first time since Gallup began asking its principle question on abortion in 1975.

So this week’s results are promising, but also a little depressing. So it goes.

Danielle Wiener-Bronner is a news reporter.