According to the new poll published on June 16, 71 percent of Britons believe that abortion should be legal “in most or all cases,” but between young men aged 16-34, this number plunges to 46 percent. The Ipsos survey was conducted between May 16 and 19 and surveyed 1,062 British people between ages 16 and 75.
According to Ipsos, 34 percent of Britons think that abortion should be legal in all cases, and 38 percent in most cases. Thirteen percent of Britons believe abortion should be illegal in most cases, and four percent believe it should be illegal in all cases. Ipsos noted that this “level of support has remained relatively consistent since 2022.”
Again, the surprise from the new Ipsos survey is the pro-life shift among young men. While 76 percent of men between the ages of 35 and 54 think abortion should be legal in most or all cases and 82 percent of men between the ages of 55 and 75, “less than half (46 percent) of men aged 16-34 believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.”
The Ipsos survey also revealed that there is no public push to change the law to decriminalize abortion up until birth, as MPs are likely to do this week. Forty-seven percent of Britons “believe the current 24-week time limit for most abortions in England and Wales is ‘about right,’ while almost a quarter—24 percent–think it is “too late.” Only four percent believe it is too early. Over half of those surveyed, 55 percent, think that the party who committed the abortion should receive a penalty.
“While the majority of Britons support legal abortion, with seven in ten in favour, our polling reveals a significant fault line: less than half of young men aged 16-34 agree,” noted Kate Duxbury of Ipsos. “This divergence, coupled with the fact that around half of Britons think the current 24-week limit is ‘about right’, highlights the complexities facing policymakers as they consider decriminalisation. It’s clear that public opinion is far from monolithic, demanding a nuanced approach to this sensitive issue.”
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that the MPs pushing for abortion until birth are interested in nuance or sensitivity at this point; those possessing views on feticide so extreme that they are willing to countenance the destruction of healthy, “viable” children in the womb will not be persuaded to change their minds by polling data. The Ipsos survey does, however, emphasize once again that abortion extremism is being driven from the top down rather than the bottom up.
It is also clear that the growing gender divide on abortion may be a more pervasive trend, with the shift being documented in both the U.S. and the U.K. Previously, women had tended to be slightly more pro-life than men; the fact that this is changing needs to be studied more in depth. What is pushing young men in the pro-life direction? What experiences or influences are behind this change? In many ways, this shift is counter-intuitive, which makes it even more interesting. Perhaps a generational change is coming. Clearly, the pro-life movement has an unanticipated opportunity here.
