Topline
Americans’ approval of using birth control fell to an all-time low, according to Gallup’s annual poll on moral issues, as acceptance of a number of moral issues including gambling and having children out of marriage fell significantly over the last year.
About 83% of Americans believe using birth control is morally acceptable—down from 90% in 2025.
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Key Facts
A clear majority of Americans polled—about 83%—still believe using birth control is morally acceptable, but that figure dropped seven percentage points from the 90% acceptance rate recorded in 2025.
That 83% is an all-time low for the issue since Gallup began polling on birth control in 2012.
Five other behaviors also hit record-low “moral acceptability” numbers in the poll: Gambling (57%), the death penalty (52%), cloning animals (27%), medical testing on animals (45%) and changing genders (38%).
The low support for gambling comes amid widespread proliferation of sports betting since the landmark Supreme Court case effectively legalized it in 2018, and polling conducted by the American Gaming Association in 2025 finding about 57% of Americans placed some form of bet at a casino or sportsbook over the last year.
There was also a nine percentage point drop in approval for having children outside of marriage—only 58% of respondents now approve, down from 67% in 2025 and down from a high acceptance rate of 70% in 2023.
Americans’ views on the acceptability of sex between teenagers also fell significantly over the last year, according to the poll, while acceptance for other behaviors and issues like divorce, sex outside of marriage and human stem cell research declined slightly since the 2025 poll.
Gallup’s poll surveyed 1,001 adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and has a 4% margin of error, according to the pollster.
Abortion and Transgender Issues Remain Divisive
The new poll also found large partisan gaps ever surveyed between Republicans and Democrats on a number of key issues. About 73% of Democrats said they believed abortion was morally acceptable, compared to only 18% of Republicans—a 55-point gap. Republicans and Democrats were equally divided on the issue of changing one’s gender, with 60% of Democrats saying it was morally acceptable compared to only 5% of Republicans.
Support From Independents Also Collapsed
Overall, support for many of the behaviors surveyed by Gallup have fallen heavily among political independents. Significantly fewer independents support divorce, falling to only 69% approval compared to 82% approval in 2025. Similarly, acceptance of birth control also fell about 11 percentage points, falling to 79% acceptance compared to 90% acceptance the previous year. Independents’ support for gambling also fell significantly, and stood at only 53% compared to 67% the previous year to become the demographic least likely to support betting.
Surprising Fact
In general, Democrats are overall more likely to approve of most of the issues surveyed by Gallup. However, more Republicans than Democrats approved of three behaviors: medical testing on Animals, wearing animal fur and the death penalty.
Key Background
About one week earlier, another Gallup poll found Americans’ support for major LGBTQ issues fell over the last year. Only 65% of respondents believed same-sex marriages should be valid, down from a high acceptance rate of 71% in 2023.
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