Data show pro-life movement must work harder in less religious states
Gallup recently asked residents of all fifty U.S. states to identify themselves as “very religious,” moderately religious,” or “nonreligious,” and used this data to rank the states by religiosity. It found that Mississippi has the largest percentage of residents who are “very religious,” at 59%. The least religious states are concentrated in New England: Vermont (21%), Maine (23%), and Massachusetts (25%).
The following table compares states’ religiosity against two measures of its progress (or lack thereof) on the right to life: its legal ranking, via Americans United for Life, and its abortion rate, via the Guttmacher Institute. (We previously explored the correlation between pro-life laws and low abortion rates.)
|
State
|
% Very Religious
|
AUL Rank (#1 being most
pro-life) |
Abortion Rate (per 1,000 women
of reproductive age; national rate is 14.6) |
|
Mississippi
|
59
|
7
|
3.7
|
|
Alabama
|
56
|
23
|
8.3
|
|
Utah
|
54
|
25
|
4.6
|
|
South Dakota
|
53
|
6
|
3.5
|
|
South Carolina
|
52
|
20
|
6.4
|
|
Arkansas
|
52
|
4
|
8.0
|
|
Louisiana
|
50
|
3
|
10.8
|
|
Tennessee
|
50
|
15
|
10.7
|
|
Oklahoma
|
49
|
1
|
7.0
|
|
North Carolina
|
47
|
22
|
15.1
|
|
Georgia
|
47
|
8
|
15.7
|
|
Kentucky
|
47
|
19
|
4.1
|
|
Texas
|
45
|
17
|
9.8
|
|
Missouri
|
45
|
11
|
4.4
|
|
North Dakota
|
44
|
13
|
8.7
|
|
West Virginia
|
44
|
32
|
6.0
|
|
Nebraska
|
43
|
16
|
6.3
|
|
Kansas
|
43
|
2
|
12.9
|
|
Virginia
|
42
|
18
|
12.5
|
|
Idaho
|
42
|
21
|
4.2
|
|
New Mexico
|
41
|
39
|
11.7
|
|
Indiana
|
41
|
12
|
6.3
|
|
Iowa
|
40
|
35
|
7.5
|
|
Wyoming
|
39
|
37
|
1.1
|
|
Pennsylvania
|
38
|
10
|
13.3
|
|
Ohio
|
38
|
14
|
10.3
|
|
Wisconsin
|
38
|
24
|
5.6
|
|
Minnesota
|
38
|
28
|
9.3
|
|
Michigan
|
37
|
9
|
15.4
|
|
Illinois
|
37
|
30
|
16.3
|
|
Delaware
|
37
|
31
|
16.7
|
|
Florida
|
37
|
26
|
20.6
|
|
Arizona
|
36
|
5
|
9.8
|
|
Maryland
|
36
|
38
|
23.4
|
|
New Jersey
|
34
|
47
|
25.8
|
|
Montana
|
34
|
40
|
9.1
|
|
Colorado
|
32
|
29
|
12.1
|
|
California
|
31
|
49
|
19.5
|
|
New York
|
31
|
44
|
29.6
|
|
New Hampshire
|
29
|
33
|
10.4
|
|
Washington
|
29
|
50
|
13.7
|
|
Hawaii
|
28
|
41
|
14.0
|
|
Connecticut
|
28
|
43
|
19.2
|
|
Oregon
|
27
|
46
|
12.0
|
|
Alaska
|
27
|
34
|
10.0
|
|
Nevada
|
27
|
45
|
19.4
|
|
Rhode Island
|
27
|
27
|
17.0
|
|
Massachusetts
|
25
|
42
|
15.3
|
|
Maine
|
23
|
36
|
9.5
|
|
Vermont
|
21
|
48
|
12.1
|
Clearly, a correlation exists: more religious states tend to enjoy better pro-life laws and lower abortion rates.* The correlation is not perfect; to take one example, New Mexico and Indiana are very similar in terms of religiosity (41% “very religious” and 30% “nonreligious”), but New Mexico ranks far lower on AUL’s list and its abortion rate is nearly double that of Indiana.
Nevertheless, there is cause for concern. A faith-based pro-life movement is bound to be ineffective in the states where preborn babies most urgently need our help: New York (only 31% “very religious” and a sky-high 29.6 abortion rate); New Jersey (34%, 25.8); Maryland (36%, 23.4); Florida (37%, 20.6); California (31%, 19.5); Nevada (27%, 19.4); and Connecticut (28%, 19.2).
Let us leave no unborn child behind. If you support a secular approach that meets people where they are, please donate to Secular Pro-Life.
*For the math nerds, I ran the data through an online coefficient calculator and found a correlation between % very religious and AUL Life List rank of -0.7185; between % very religious and abortion rate of -0.5051; and between AUL Life List rank and abortion rate of 0.4602.
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