Presenting the Millennial, Abortion & Religion Survey at Brookings

On June 9, we released PRRI's Millennial, Abortion and Religion Survey, one of the largest public opinion surveys on abortion and religion ever conducted. The report, Committed to Availability, Conflicted about Morality: What the Millennial Generation tells us about the Future of the Abortion Debate and the Culture Wars, was released at a standing room only event hosted by the Brookings Institution. 

• Unlike all other age groups, Millennials register different levels of support for the availability and legality of abortion, which suggests the general measures of legality may not fully capture support for legal abortion among Millennials.

• The binary "pro-choice"/"pro-life" labels do not reflect the complexity of Americans' views on abortion. This overlapping identity is present in virtually every demographic group.

• The study identified and tested a number of hypotheses about independent influences on attitudes about the legality of abortion. Among these, having seen MTV's reality shows about unmarried pregnant teenagers has a positive impact on support for the legality of abortion, while recently seeing an ultrasound has a negative impact on support for the legality of abortion.

• More than 7-in-10 (72%) religious Americans believe it is possible to disagree with the teachings of their religion on the issue of abortion and still be considered a person of good standing in their faith.

Although Americans that both financial and sexual misconduct of elected officials constitute very serious moral problems, the June PRRI/RNS Religion News Survey found that significantly more Americans say that elected officials who commit financial offenses should resign than say those who commit sexual offenses should resign. The new survey was conducted in partnership with Religion News Service following former Congressman Anthony Weiner's resignation announcement and released amidst a new Congressional Ethics Panel investigation of sexual harassment by Congressman Alcee Hastings of Florida.

The new survey, which asked Americans to judge the morality of a number of offenses independently of each other, also found that significantly more Americans believe that lying about immoral sexual behavior is a very serious moral problem than say the behavior itself is a very serious moral problem. Nearly 8-in-10 (77%) say it is a very serious moral problem if an elected official lies to cover up an immoral sexual act.

 

Big "C", Little "c", what begins with "C"? 

Elected Officials' Catholic Dilemma on Same-sex Marriage 

It wouldn't come as a shock if New York politicians are starting to sweat--not from the summer heat, but from worry about the political fallout from this week's legislative vote to make New York the sixth state, in addition to the District of Columbia, to legalize same-sex marriage. After all, New York's Catholic Bishops have expressed outrage over the vote, and nearly 40% of New York voters are Catholic. But, the polls show a surprising reality that may ease the worries of some elected officials even as it makes their job harder. There are in fact two very different Catholic voices that elected officials in New York and elsewhere around the country have to navigate: the big "C" voice of the Catholic bishops who are adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage, and the little "c" voices of Catholics in the pews who are largely supportive....