Most Americans believe that healthcare professionals who have religious objections to abortion should not be forced to perform them, according to an annual Knights of Columbus-Marist poll released Thursday.
The poll found that the majority of Americans, 63%, think healthcare professionals who object to abortions due to religious reasons should not be legally required to provide them, while 88% of those surveyed believe that laws can protect both the mother as well as her unborn child. Meanwhile, 67% of respondents said they support placing legal limits on abortion, while 57% would back limiting abortions to the first three months of pregnancy at most, according to the survey.
“Despite the publicly heated debates about abortion, there remains a consensus of opinion on this issue among Americans,” Dr. Barbara L. Carvalho, director of the Marist Poll, said in a statement. “Americans believe abortion should be limited yet include exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.”
“Despite the changes in practice that have occurred since the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision, public opinion has remained consistent,” Carvalho added.
Moreover, the poll also showed that 84% of U.S. adults support pregnancy resource centers.
“The Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll continues to show that a majority of Americans support legal restrictions on abortion,” Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said in a statement. “At the same time, a growing majority support pregnancy resource centers, which provide assistance to mothers and their children in their time of greatest need.”
“The Knights have supported vulnerable women and their children since our founding by Blessed Michael McGivney more than 140 years ago, and our commitment has never wavered,” Kelly continued. “And now, we’re guided by the encouraging words of Pope Leo XIV, who recently mentioned in his ‘State of the World’ address, ‘life is a priceless gift,’ and that, as Catholics, we have a ‘fundamental ethical imperative’ to ‘welcome and fully care for unborn life.’ The Knights of Columbus’ mission will continue to be guided by these principles until abortion becomes unthinkable.”
The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization founded in 1882, describe its mission as aiming to empower Catholic men “to live their faith and serve their family, parish, community and country.”
In January 2024, former President Joe Biden’s administration released a final rule which partially rescinded a “conscience” rule from 2019 — during President Donald Trump’s first administration — that would have cut off federal funding to healthcare facilities that required employees to provide services they objected to, such as abortions, contraception, “gender-affirming care” and sterilization, The Hill reported.
Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday announced new enforcement and policy actions aiming to “safeguard federal health care provider conscience rights and protect the dignity of human life,” according to a news release. Paula M. Stannard, director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), said in a statement that the OCR “will continue to protect federal conscience rights and the dignity of human life.”
The enforcement actions included the OCR sending a Notice of Violation to Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Secretary Mario Treto, which claimed that an Illinois state law violates two federal health care conscience laws, per the news release.
During the first six months of 2025, an estimated total of 591,770 abortions were performed in the U.S., according to a report from the Society of Family Planning released in December 2025. Additionally, 27% of all abortions in the nation were provided via telehealth during the first half of the same year, the report found.
The number of abortions reportedly conducted via abortion pills mailed to patients have continued to rise across the U.S. in recent years, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported in June 2025.
The survey of 1,408 U.S. adults was conducted from Jan. 12 and 13, by the Marist Poll sponsored in partnership with the Knights of Columbus. Results for all adults are statistically significant within plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
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