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Younger Americans are trending away from support for abortion rights.

According to this new Gallup poll:

In the mid-1970s, when Gallup started polling on the issue, adults aged 18 to 29 and 30 to 49 were the most supportive of legal abortion under any circumstances, and those 65 and older the least, with 50- to 64-year-olds falling in between. That pattern continued through the late 1990s. Since 2000, however, all age groups with the exception of seniors have shown similar levels of support for broadly legal abortion....

In the most recent period, from 2005 to 2009, the majority of all age groups favored the middle "legal only under certain circumstances" position. However, there was some differentiation in support for the more liberal abortion view, as roughly a quarter of adults aged 18 to 29, 30 to 49, and 50 to 64 -- versus 16% of seniors -- believed abortion should be legal under any circumstances.

At the same time, young adults were slightly more likely than all other age groups, including seniors, to say abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

Why this new trend? It could be that young people are influenced by their parents, and parents who oppose abortion have been having more children, especially in the post-Roe period ? when the 18 to 29 year olds were born.

Full post as published by Althouse on March 12, 2010 (boomark / email).