In a new study this month, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 89 percent of Jews say “abortion should be legal in all or most cases.” Compare that to 72 percent among Americans with no religious affiliation, and 63 percent among white mainline Protestants.
On the other side, 62 percent of Mormons say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Among white evangelicals, the figure was 64 percent and 52 percent among Hispanic Catholics.
It’s of course not news that Jews skew liberal on social issues, but look just how liberal — significantly more than even non-religious Americans.
We should note that the question was not about the morality of abortion, but about its legality, so the poll might tell us more about a Jewish desire to keep a strict separation between church and state than Jewish views about the legitimacy of prematurely ending a pregnancy. Or it might say something about the willingness of secular Jews to still identify as Jewish; non-practicing Catholics are probably far less likely to do that.
But either way, wow.
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