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By Aliss Higham

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Americans are becoming less accepting of certain issues long at the center of controversy, with notable declines in approval over the past year.

The sharpest drops were seen in views on:

• birth control
• having a baby outside of marriage
• gambling
• teenage sex
• animal cloning

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It marks a broader pullback in moral permissiveness after years of gradual liberalization.

The findings come from Gallup’s May 1–17 Values and Beliefs poll, which has tracked U.S. attitudes toward a wide range of behaviors annually since 2001. This year's survey polled 1,001 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

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Sharpest Declines in Moral Acceptance

Five of the 20 behaviors measured saw statistically significant drops in moral acceptability compared with last year, each falling between 6 and 9 percentage points.

• Using birth control, while still widely viewed as morally permissible at 83 percent, registered one of the largest declines and has now reached a record low after years of relative stability.
• Gambling also fell to 57 percent from 63 percent approval, another historic low point in the trend.
• Cloning animals, at just 27 percent approval, dropped from 34 percent.
• Other notable declines include having a baby outside of marriage, now at 58 percent, the same level it was in 2014 and 9 points lower than last year.
• Sex between teenagers has an overall 35 percent approval rating, a drop from 41 percent.

All five behaviors reflect a broader cooling in public acceptance after years of gradual upward movement across many social issues.

What Do Americans Accept?

The poll found that despite recent declines in some areas, Americans continue to broadly accept several behaviors.

• Large majorities say birth control and divorce (74 percent) are still morally acceptable.
• Solid majorities also support sex between unmarried adults (65 percent) and gay or lesbian relationships (62 percent).

Other things considered acceptable by most Americans include:

• Medical research using embryonic stem cells (59 percent)

• Buying clothing made of animal fur (57 percent)

• Gambling (57 percent)

• Just over half also view the death penalty (52 percent) as morally acceptable.

  • Last year, the number of executions in the United States almost doubled from the previous year, up to 47 from 25 in 2024.

However, attitudes are more divided on several issues.

• Abortion, which has long been a source of contention among Americans, is split, with 49 percent saying it is morally acceptable and 41 percent saying it is morally wrong.
• Doctor-assisted suicide, or euthanasia (49 percent acceptable, 45 percent wrong)
• Medical testing on animals (45 percent acceptable, 48 percent wrong) also shows near-even divisions.
• Changing one’s gender was viewed as morally acceptable by 38 percent of Americans.

At the other end of the spectrum, several behaviours are widely rejected by Americans.

• Extramarital affairs (7 percent acceptable) are deemed the most morally offensive behavior.
• Cloning humans was only acceptable to 9 percent.
• Polygamy was supported by 19 percent.

Overall Ratings Across 20 Behaviors

Gallup’s latest breakdown of the 20 tracked behaviors shows a clear spread in moral judgement:

Partisan Divides

Political affiliation continues to shape moral judgement on many of these issues. Democrats tend to be significantly more accepting across issues tied to identity, sexuality, and medical autonomy, while Republicans are more restrictive on those same questions but more accepting of punitive measures like the death penalty.

Democrats are significantly more likely than Republicans to view behaviors such as abortion, gender transition, and gay relationships as morally acceptable, with gaps reaching as high as 55 percentage points in some cases.

Idealogical overlap wanes the most on matters of the female body, sex, and relationships. The largest gap is on abortion, where 73 percent of Democrats say it is morally acceptable compared with just 18 percent of Republicans—a 55-point difference. A near-identical divide appears on changing one’s gender (60 percent vs 5 percent), also a 55-point gap.

Gay or lesbian relations also show a major divide, with 81 percent of Democrats viewing them as morally acceptable compared with just 35 percent of Republicans (a 46-point gap). This pattern extends into related questions of sexual autonomy, with sex between teenagers (54 percent vs 16 percent) having a 38 point difference.

Attitudes toward medical ethics also reveal wide splits in opinion. On embryonic stem cell research, 75 percent of Democrats say it is morally acceptable compared with 48 percent of Republicans, a 27-point gap, and views on doctor-assisted suicide follow a similar pattern (32 percent vs 8 percent).

The data show that Republicans are more supportive of a few things than Democrats, though these are less common. The death penalty stands out most clearly: 76 percent of Republicans see it as morally acceptable compared with 33 percent of Democrats, a 43-point gap.

Smaller Republican-leaning differences appear in buying and wearing animal fur (70 percent vs 47 percent) and in medical testing on animals (51 percent vs 43 percent), though these are more modest than the gaps seen in social and cultural issues.

There are, however, areas where agreement is more common. Both groups strongly reject behaviors like extramarital affairs (3 percent Republicans vs 8 percent Democrats), cloning humans (4 percent vs 7 percent), and polygamy (7 percent vs 17 percent), where moral disapproval is overwhelming across the board despite small partisan differences.

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