Poll: Abortion less likely to be a moral issue than stem cell research

Published: Aug. 16, 2013 at 9:47 AM

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Americans are more likely to see an abortion as morally wrong, compared to other procedures that involve embryos, such as stem cell research, a poll indicates.

Only 23 percent of U.S. adults said they personally do not consider having an abortion to be a moral issue, the survey by the Pew Research Center indicates.

But twice as many Americans -- 46 percent -- said they do not consider in vitro fertilization a moral issue, and 36 percent said the same about stem cell research.

Forty-nine percent of U.S. adults consider abortion morally wrong while only 12 percent express the same view about in vitro fertilization and 16 percent about embryonic stem cell research.

Only 15 percent of the public said having an abortion is morally acceptable while about a third of U.S. adults said they view IVF and stem cell research as morally acceptable, the survey indicated.

The poll was conducted March 21-April 8 among 4,006 adults. The margin of error is 2.1 percentage points.

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Poll: Abortion less likely to be a moral issue than stem cell research