Satisfaction with U.S. abortion policies has hit the lowest point since 2001, with twice as many people preferring stricter laws over more lenient ones, according to a new Gallup poll.
Only 34 percent of the 804 respondents said they were satisfied in 2015 with abortion policies, the lowest since Gallup first asked the question in 2001. Forty-eight percent said they were dissatisfied with current policies. Gallup didn't ask the question between 2009 and 2011.
Between 2001 and 2008, satisfaction rates averaged 43 percent, but between 2012 and 2014, that dropped to an average of 39 percent.
When dissatisfied Americans were asked a follow-up question to find out whether they wanted laws to be made stricter or less strict, twice as many - 24 percent - said they want stricter laws, while only 12 percent said they want abortion laws to be relaxed.
Gallup found that GOP members were the most disenchanted with current policies. Overall dissatisfaction among Republicans rose from 50 percent during the Bush years to 62 percent since 2012.
Republican satisfaction reached an all-time high of 44 percent in January 2002, Bush's first year in office, but since 2012, "no more than 29 percent of Republicans have been satisfied with the nation's abortion policies," wrote Gallup's Rebecca Riffkin. "And Republicans' satisfaction is particularly low this year, at 21 percent, an eight-percentage-point decline from a year ago."
Satisfaction levels among Democratic and Independent voters has remained steady.
Democrats were at 52 percent in 2002, and dropped to 42 percent in 2007, but have remained between 46 percent and 50 percent during Obama's tenure. Independents have stayed between 37 percent and 42 percent, reaching a high of 48 percent in 2013.
"This shift in attitudes most likely reflects the change from a pro-life Republican president to a pro-choice Democratic one," said Riffkin. "Notably, Democrats' views have not become more positive after the change in presidential administrations, perhaps because abortion is the law of the land."
