New Gallup polling shows record high numbers of Americans holding liberal views on issues concerning morality, such as birth control, pornography and homosexuality.
“Americans continue to express an increasingly liberal outlook on what is morally acceptable, as their views on 10 of 19 moral issues that Gallup measures are the most left-leaning or permissive they have been to date,” says Gallup. “The percentages of U.S. adults who believe birth control, divorce, sex between unmarried people, gay or lesbian relations, having a baby outside of marriage, doctor-assisted suicide, pornography and polygamy are morally acceptable practices have tied record highs or set new ones this year.”
While there was record approval for activity typically gauged as immoral, there was also, unsurprisingly, record low support for the death penalty and medical testing on animals, both left-wing pet causes.
The polling, which took place via telephone from May 3-7, focused on 1,011 random American adults from all across the country. Participants were asked to score a series of issues as morally acceptable or morally wrong in what Gallup refers to as their annual Values and Beliefs poll. The poll was first conducted in 2001, covering a total of 13 issues; there are currently 19 issues in total.
The number of Americans who viewed birth control as morally acceptable was sky-high, at a record-breaking 91 percent. Divorce and gay marriage also hit record highs of moral acceptability; 73 percent and 69 percent respectively. Having a child outside of wedlock was approved of by 62 percent of those polled and pornography hit a high at 36 percent.
Moral approval for the death penalty hit record low support, at just 58 percent; as did medical testing on animals, at just 51 percent acceptance.
Somewhat of an outlier, abortion has only changed by one percentage point since first polled in 2001, up just one percent to 43 percent moral acceptance from Americans.
“The leftward movement in perceptions of what is morally acceptable has been ongoing, with Gallup also noting shifts in 2014 and 2015. Since then, there have been additional, albeit slight, changes in a more permissive direction. All of the new highs this year are one or two percentage points above previous highs,” reports Gallup on the creeping leftism.
Gallup has seen no movement toward more conservative, traditional views of morality:
Of the 19 issues included in this year’s poll, 13 show meaningful change in a liberal direction over time, regardless of whether they are currently at their high point in Gallup’s trend. No issues show meaningful change toward more traditionally conservative positions compared with when Gallup first measured them.