Why are Men More Pro-Life on Abortion Than Women?

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade reignited debate over abortion across the nation, but a new survey is suggesting that the widest divides on the issue may be between men and women. A June Gallup poll found that support for abortion along three metrics — identifying as “pro-choice,” supporting broad legalization of abortion, and considering abortion “morally acceptable” — has slowly waned since 2022 but is still generally stronger than support for pro-life positions.

Overall, 51% of Americans identify as “pro-choice,” down from 55% in May of 2022, a month before the Supreme Court overturned Roe. The share of Americans who identify as pro-life fell sharply from 47% in May of 2021 to only 39% in 2022 but has steadily climbed to 43% as of last month. Since Gallup began studying the subject in 1995, a majority of Americans have favored strong pro-life restrictions on abortion, saying that abortion should be illegal in all or most circumstances.

In 2022, that share of Americans fell below 50% for the first time, dropping to 45%; as of last month, 48% of Americans support pro-life restrictions on abortion. However, support for broadly legalized abortion currently stands at only 49%, down from an all-time high of 53% in 2022. Support for the moral acceptability of abortion has also declined, dropping from an all-time high of 54% last year to 49% this year. Meanwhile, only 40% of Americans consider abortion morally wrong, slightly up from 37% last year but still far from the all-time high of 56% in 2009.

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Political differences on the issue of abortion are stark. At present, only 20% of Republican voters support broad legalization of abortion, compared to 51% of Independent voters and 81% of Democrats. Similarly, only 20% of Republicans consider abortion morally acceptable, compared to 52% of Independent voters and 78% of Democrats.

However, the most startling differences identified by Gallup are between men and women. Since 1995, men and women have generally aligned on the issue of abortion, although women have been slightly more likely to identify as “pro-choice” and to support unrestricted legalization of abortion. Between 2019 and 2021, that changed, with support for abortion — along all three metrics — noticeably rising among women but sharply cratering among men. In 1995, 56% of both men and women identified as “pro-choice.” By 2019, 48% of men and 43% of women identified as “pro-choice.” The share of women identifying as “pro-choice” has since then leapt 18 points, now standing at 61%, while the share of men who identify as “pro-choice” has dropped to a near-all-time low of 41%, yielding a record 20-point division.

Likewise, men and women were never more than 10 points away from each other on whether or not abortion should be broadly legalized, although the share of both remained under 50% until 2021, when it spiked to 51% among women but stood at only 40% among men. Since then, support for nearly-unrestricted abortion has continued to climb among women, now standing at 56%, but has hovered between 39% (2023) and 41% (2025) among men, yielding a 15-point gap. In 2020, 42% of men and 47% of women considered abortion “morally acceptable.” Once again, a fissure began to grow between the two demographics, spiking by 10 points (now at 57%) among women and rising slightly (to a high of 47% in 2021 and 2024) among men before falling steeply to only 40% as of last month, denoting a 17-point division.

The division between the sexes on abortion is also visible among Independent voters and, to a lesser extent, Republicans, although there is little to no difference between female Democrats and male Democrats on the subject. Among Republicans, 23% of women identify as “pro-choice,” compared to 19% of men; 22% of women support broad legalization of abortion, compared to 19% of men; and 27% of women consider abortion morally acceptable, compared to 21% of men. The division is wider among Independent voters: 62% of women and 47% of men identify as “pro-choice,” 58% of women and 43% of men support almost-unrestricted abortion, and 60% of women and 45% of men consider abortion morally acceptable.

Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, explained in comments to The Washington Stand, “This seems to track the growing partisan divide between men and women generally. Men are becoming more conservative and women are becoming more liberal. This is especially true for young people.” Backholm observed, “The idea that abortion is moral flows from the belief that whatever makes me happy is good and anything that doesn’t make me happy is bad. From that perspective, abortion is ‘good’ if it is perceived to solve a problem or get me back on the path to happiness.” He added, “Conservativism assumes there are things more important than immediate, personal happiness so it does not justify abortion so easily. To me, this suggests women are more inclined to value personal happiness as the greatest good.”

Dr. Michael New, senior associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, told TWS, “For a long time, various mainstream media pundits and commentators claimed that there was a large gender gap on the issue of abortion. However, actual polling data did not reflect this.” He added, “Indeed, a broad body of polling and survey data from the 1990s into the 2010s showed that men and women had fairly similar attitudes on abortion.”

“However, since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, survey data from Gallup and other survey research firms does find that there is a growing gender gap on the issue of abortion. Women are more likely to identify as ‘pro-choice’ and men are more likely to identify as ‘pro-life,’” New explained. “Public opinion analysts are not certain why this is the case. A likely explanation involves religion.”

New further observed, “Older research shows that women are more likely to attend church services than men. However, recent studies indicate that young men are actually more likely to attend church than young women.” He continued, “This might be causing a gender gap on abortion attitudes. Indeed, a recent Ipsos poll from Great Britain found that men aged 16-34 were the demographic least supportive of legal abortion.”

Francis J. Beckwith, a professor of philosophy and church-state studies at Baylor University, told TWS, “The increasing gap between men and women on abortion I suspect has more to do with political and cultural tribalism than the result of careful moral deliberation.” He explained, “I’d like to see what the data would say if religiosity and marital status were factored in. I suspect that the increasing secularism of younger women and the increasing religiosity of younger men probably accounts for the increasing gap.” Beckwith added that he “wouldn’t be surprised that the gap is virtually non-existent for men and women over 40.”

“Having said that, a more fine-grained survey would tell us more than Gallup’s vague questions could muster. For example, instead of asking the question of whether abortion is morally permissible, why not ask whether elective abortion is the taking of an innocent human life?” Beckwith continued. He noted, “The fact that Gallup didn’t get to the heart of the issue in any of its questions — that is, whether the unborn human being is one of us and entitled to the care of its parents and protection of the laws — reveals that it really doesn’t understand the nature of the dispute over abortion.”

LifeNews Note: S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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