Marist Poll: 56 percent against abortion

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Fifty-six percent of all Americans and 58 percent of those ages 18-29 say abortion is "morally wrong," a U.S. survey indicates.

The survey, conducted in late December and early January, is the latest in a series of such surveys commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic fraternal organization, and conducted by Marist Institute for Public Opinion.

The survey indicates 51 percent of baby boomers, ages 45-64, say abortion is morally wrong, while 60 percent of Generation X, ages 30-44, join the Millennials in saying abortion is morally wrong. More than 6-in-10 of the Greatest Generation, those age 65 and older, feel the same.

"Americans of all ages -- and younger people in even greater numbers than their parents -- see abortion as something morally wrong," Supreme Knight Carl Anderson says in a statement. "Advances in technology show clearly -- and ever more clearly -- that an unborn child is completely a human being. That, coupled with the large number of Americans who know one of the many people who has been negatively affected by abortion are certainly two of the reasons that Americans are increasingly uncomfortable with Roe vs. Wade's legacy of abortion, and with abortion generally."

The survey of 2,243 U.S. adults -- including an oversample of 1,006 Millennials -- was collected from data collected Dec. 23, 2009, through Jan. 4, 2010, using Knowledge Networks Inc. The question on abortion was part of a larger survey.

The survey has a margin of error of 2 percentage points but for Millennials the margin of error was 3 percentage points.