Sexuality and Reproductive Health and Rights

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In the Headlines

16 June 2011

Survey Sheds Light on the Future of the Culture Wars

The Public Religion Research Institute’s survey, “Committed to Availability, Conflicted about Morality,” found that while a solid majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, binary “pro-choice”/“pro-life” labels do not reflect the complexity of their views. The survey—shaped by grantees from Ford's Sexuality and Reproductive Health and Rights program and our Religion in the Public Sphere initiative—also found that Millennials are much more liberal than older Americans on the issue of same-sex marriage, and that support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage are not a package deal.

Published on Time magazine's Swampland blog

The Heart of Conservative Values: Not Where It Used to Be?

June 9, 2011 By Katy Steinmetz

The Public Religion Research Institute released a report on Thursday about the Millennial generation (roughly those ages 18 to 29) and where they stand in today’s culture wars, particularly concerning abortion and religion. One finding was that Americans in general, and particularly Millennials, have “decoupled” part of the traditional conservative values agenda, showing more support across the board for same-sex marriage while keeping in tact the preceding generations’ split over abortion.

“In recent election cycles the so-called ‘values voter’ agenda has often been distilled to abortion and same-sex marriage,” the report reads, “Yet these two controversial topics are no longer necessarily linked in the minds of Americans.” Based on 3,000 interviews and other number-crunching, Public Religion Research Institute researchers found that almost precisely the same amount of people say today that abortion should be legal in all or most cases (56%) as in 1999 (57%). Meanwhile, the support for same-sex marriages has ballooned 18 points, from 35% in 1999 to 53% in 2011.

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