The Number of Abortions since 1980 [by Abortion Policy Preference]

The umber of abortion procedures has, overall, declined steadily since 1980. Many people in our sample, however, told us that they believed that the number of abortion procedures had increased over this period or stayed roughly the same.

16.3% of those who believed abortion should be legal at any time during pregnancy correctly understood that abortion procedures have been becoming less common since 1980.

However, only 7.1% of those who believed abortion access should be legal only in the case of rape or medical necessity held an accurate belief about the prevalence of abortion procedures.