For more than a quarter century, abortion has been a subject of intense controversy. The activists in the pro-life and pro-choice camps both claim to have public opinion on their side. In this monograph, Everett Carll Ladd and Karlyn Bowman look at where the public stands. They illuminate the complexity of people's views about abortion, and they show that opinion has been remarkably stable since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. This monograph includes the most comprehensive and current collection of polls and trends on abortion that is available.

Everett Carll Ladd is the director of the Institute for Social Inquiry at the University of Connecticut. Karlyn H. Bowman is a resident fellow at AEI.