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Here’s How Religious Groups Line Up On Abortion

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Grace Carr Reporter
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Religious affiliations play a large role in opinions on abortion, with the majority of atheists claiming abortion should be legal and people of various faiths leaning toward criminalizing abortion in America, according to Pew Research.

Pew Research Center published a 2017 poll Monday, showing that religious beliefs heavily affect how Americans regard abortion legality. Eight-seven percent of atheists and agnostics think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, however, 75 percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses and 70 percent of Mormons think abortion should be illegal.

Pew Research used data from a 2017 survey conducted June 8-18.

Despite the Catholic Church’s condemnation of abortion, Catholics are split right down the middle, with 48 percent maintaining that abortion should be legal and 47 percent claiming that it should be illegal. Sixty-three percent evangelical Christians said they believe abortion should be illegal.

Conversely, only 35 percent of mainline Protestants think abortion should be illegal. Almost 80 percent of Episcopalians also think that abortion should legal in almost all cases. (RELATED: Science Is Revolutionizing Arguments Against Abortion)

Religion’s influence on abortion is well noted, but advancements in science are also changing how abortion advocates and pro-lifers argue their cause. For while Roe v. Wade legalized abortion and determined that a newborn could survive only at roughly 28 weeks of pregnancy, scientific advancements have allowed doctors and nurses to birth healthy children at 22 weeks, causing some health professionals to debate whether the medical community should change the threshold of viability

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