POLICY

Birth Control’s Approval Just Hit a Record Low

By Ophelia Clancy | Maternie

The share of Americans who say birth control is morally acceptable fell from 90% to 83% in a single year — the largest single-year drop since Gallup began tracking the question in 2012. Birth control had ranked as the most morally acceptable behavior on Gallup’s list every year it appeared. It still does. But something shifted in 2025.

Keep reading. It’s free.

Join 6,000+ readers getting women’s health research, translated clearly.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

Independents drove the slide. Their acceptance fell 11 points in 12 months. Republican approval also declined; Democratic approval held steady.

Gallup tracks moral acceptability for more than 20 behaviors, from the death penalty to polygamy. Birth control has never ranked lower than first. That consistency is part of what makes the shift worth examining.

What’s behind the drop isn’t fully clear from the data. Gallup’s polling doesn’t capture why respondents changed their answer — only that they did. But researchers who track reproductive attitudes have pointed to a few converging forces: the post-Dobbs political climate, growing religious conservative influence on public discourse, and the rise of fertility-awareness and “natural family planning” communities online, particularly among younger women.

The timing matters. This is the first significant dip in birth control acceptance in over a decade — and it arrives as federal reproductive health policy is in active flux. Several states have seen legislative challenges to contraceptive access that would have been unthinkable before 2022.

Whether this is a durable shift or a single-year fluctuation is an open question. Gallup will ask again next year. But a 7-point drop in what was the country’s most-approved moral behavior is not noise.

Source: Gallup, “Values and Beliefs” annual survey, May 2026.