Who are they in terms of demographics, faith and ideology? — GetReligion
When I post this question on Twitter, there is always someone in the replies who tries to parse this statement. They don’t know how to deal with the phrase “all circumstances.” [Editor’s note: See recent Pew Research Center poll for more information on that angle.]
After conducting surveys for more than a decade, I can say that the average survey taker spends about two seconds reading each question and just responds with their gut. In this case, they more than likely interpreting the question to mean, “I’m completely opposed to abortion.”
In the 2020 CES that equals out to just under 20% of the American population. In a sample of 61,000 folks, that equals out to 12,093 individuals (weighted). So, my N size is just fine to proceed with this analysis.
The folks who are completely anti-abortion are evenly divided between men and women — as is the sample overall.
It’s notable that in a CBS News poll conducted on June 24 and 25, men were equally split over the question of overturning Roe, while two-thirds of women did not support the decision made in Dobbs. Thus, there’s a clear disconnect between the anti-abortion sample in the CES and the CBS News data. It’s important to note that in the CES data there’s no reason to believe that there’s a gender disparity among anti-abortion folks.
There’s also a very small discrepancy between the racial composition of the American public at large and the subset of Americans who will be pleased with the state bans implemented due to the Dobbs ruling. Sixty-nine percent of Americans indicated that they were white on the CES, while it was 55% of those who opposed a total abortion ban. For Hispanics, African Americans and Asians, the gaps are even smaller. In no case do the samples deviate more than two percentage points. In short, the racial composition of anti-abortion Americans almost perfectly reflects the general public.
