Moral Issues
Explore Gallup's research.
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Americans remain largely supportive of the legalization of same-sex marriages, and a majority believe gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable.
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Americans widely regard in-vitro fertilization as morally acceptable, but they divide over whether destroying frozen embryos created by IVF is morally acceptable (49%) or wrong (43%).
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Most Americans favor abortion being legal to some degree, and a majority self-identify as "pro-choice."
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A year after U.S. voters attached record-high importance to abortion as an election issue, the issue is still potent, particularly for the pro-choice side.
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Views on the morality of a variety of practices are largely stable, though fewer say same-sex relations are morally OK and more say the death penalty is.
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More Americans, and particularly Democrats, support abortion rights and identify as "pro-choice" than they did before the Dobbs leak.
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As states stock up on mifepristone in anticipation of further litigation on FDA approval, 63% of Americans say the pill should be available with a prescription.
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Americans are less supportive than two years ago of transgender athletes being allowed to play on sports teams that match their current gender identity.
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A record-high 54% of Americans rate the state of moral values in the U.S. as poor, and 83% think it is getting worse.
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Seventy-one percent of Americans think same-sex marriage should be legal, matching the high Gallup recorded in 2022.
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Whether reflecting the remnants of the pandemic or the difficulty of inflation, Americans remain sour about the state of the union.
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Americans have negative views of the state of moral values in the nation, but at the same time have become more accepting of a variety of moral behaviors.
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A record-high 50% of Americans say the state of moral values in the U.S. is poor, while 37% think it is fair and 13% excellent or good.
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Birth control and divorce remain the most morally acceptable of 19 issues measured, and extramarital affairs and cloning humans the most morally wrong.
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Twenty-seven percent of U.S. voters say candidates for major offices must share their views on abortion to get their vote, the highest in any election year.
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A poll conducted mostly after news broke that the Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade finds an uptick in support for abortion being broadly legal.
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Seventy-one percent of Americans say they support legal same-sex marriage, a new high in Gallup's trend.
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Gallup finds that 10% of LGBT adults in the U.S. are married to a same-sex spouse, and another 6% live with a same-sex partner.
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Americans' views on the moral acceptability of sexual behavior and marriage have shifted significantly over the past 20 years.