The US is much more hostile to abortion than other countries in the developed world, with more Americans opposed to terminations than supportive, according to a survey of 23 of the world’s biggest countries.
The YouGov-Cambridge Globalism survey, which was conducted before this week’s move in Alabama to impose the strictest abortion legislation anywhere in the US, found 46% of Americans said abortion was unacceptable, compared with 38% who found it acceptable.
The poll puts the US on a par with developing countries such as India (48-37%) and Turkey (47-41%), but considerably out of step with America’s rich-nation peers.
“The US is exceptional compared with other highly developed countries on religiosity,” said Andrew Whitehead, a professor who studies religion in the US at Clemson University, South Carolina.
“Even though the US is growing more secular over time, we are an outlier compared with western Europe or other countries that are similarly advanced technologically.”
Supporters of the US president were even more anti-abortion: 78% of Donald Trump voters said abortion was unacceptable, with just 18% approving of terminations. Rural areas were significantly more anti-abortion than cities.
People who sympathise with Trump’s positions are often those who seek more religion in public life, such as prayer in school. “When we look at moral issues like abortion there’s such as strong correlation between conservative religiosity and attitudes toward abortion,” Whitehead said.
When Trump calls to overturn Roe versus Wade, the landmark 1973 US supreme court decision that legalised abortion, “he’s speaking their language”.
The better educated an individual, the more likely they were to approve of a woman’s right to have an abortion. Older people were less persuaded of a woman’s right to choose than the young: 53% of those aged 55 and over were opposed, compared to 34% of 18-24 year olds.
Patriots were more anti-abortion than the average American. Of those who expressed the view that the US is the best country in the world, 65% were anti-abortion.
The survey data confirms the cultural battle lines that have been drawn in the US for 50 years, and have deepened under Trump. The Alabama move marks the latest stage in a growing push against women’s reproductive rights in the US, fuelled by rightwing Christians emboldened under his presidency.
The bill is part of a trend across the US in which Republican-controlled states are attempting to put fresh restrictions on abortion, gambling that they will fare better in court challenges following the confirmation of new federal judges and supreme court justices picked by the Trump administration.
One of Trump’s first moves in office was to reinstate the “global gag” rule which effectively exports the American right’s opposition to abortion by penalising any groups around the world that give family planning advice.
