The gender gap between men and women who identify as pro-choice has widened to its largest point on record, according to a new Gallup poll.
Sixty-one percent of women view themselves as pro-choice when it comes to abortion while 41 percent of men call themselves pro-choice, the poll released Monday found.
The 20-point difference between the genders is the largest gap since Gallup began tracking public opinion on abortion twenty years ago.
The numbers are slightly lower than they were last year, knocking down the overall percentage of U.S. adults who consider themselves to be pro-choice to 51 percent.
Gallup noticed an immediate increase in support for abortion access among Americans after the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had established a constitutional right to abortion.
In 2022, the percentage of U.S. adults who considered themselves pro-choice increased to 55 percent, up from 49 percent the previous year.
Women’s support for abortion access though has significantly outweighed men’s since then.
In 2022, 61 percent of women called themselves pro-choice, marking a 9-point increase from the year before.
Meanwhile, 48 percent of men referred to themselves as pro-choice that same year, representing a 3-point increase from 2021.
Women’s support for abortion access has since generally increased or remained steady, while men’s support has fallen.
“The net result is that the gender and partisan gaps in Americans’ views on abortion are at historical highs, and the country as a whole has moved slightly left in its abortion views,” wrote Lydia Saad, director of social research at Gallup.
“Although some of the changes seen in 2022 have eased, the public opinion landscape remains more accepting of abortion than it was prior to Dobbs.”
Gallup’s poll findings are based on telephone interviews of 1,003 adults across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., conducted May 1-18.
