Roughly 55% of Americans say they are ‘pro-choice,’ the most since 1995, Gallup finds

The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as “pro-choice” hit 55% — its highest level in decades — on the heels of a leaked opinion that strongly suggests the Supreme Court will revoke the constitutional right to abortion in the next month, a new Gallup poll finds.

That is six percentage points higher than the level of Americans identifying as “pro-choice” recorded in a similar Gallup poll last year.

The latest time that level was reached was in 1995 when 56% of Americans said they were “pro-choice,” or supported women’s rights to terminate their pregnancies.

Gallup said that the sharp rise in respondents who back abortion rights was driven overwhelmingly by the increase in Democratic-leaning groups of people with that view.

“The percentage ‘pro-choice’ did not change significantly among Republicans, independents, men or older Americans,” according to a summary of the findings issued by Gallup.

The poll released Thursday also found that a majority of Americans now consider abortion to be morally acceptable, the first time a majority has expressed that view in Gallup polling.

The same new poll found that the percentage of Americans who said they are “pro-life,” or opposed to abortions, is 39% — the lowest level since 1996.

And 35% of Americans say they favor making abortion legal in any circumstances, which is the highest percentage ever measured by Gallop.

The telephone survey of 1,007 American adults was conducted from May 2 through May 22. It had a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.

Politico reported May 2 that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had written a draft of a majority opinion that said the high court’s 1973 ruling in the…