Among Hispanic adults, about 4 in 10 identify as Catholic, a third identify as Protestant, and about a fifth don’t have any religious affiliation. Hispanic Protestants and Hispanic Catholics hold similar views on key issues like abortion and the presidential candidates.
Similar to the U.S. adults overall, two-thirds of Hispanic Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, despite the Catholic Church’s official stance on abortion. Six in 10 Hispanic Protestants agree; however, Hispanic non-evangelical Protestants are more likely to believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases than Hispanic evangelical Protestants (77% vs. 45%).
About half of both Hispanic Protestants and Hispanic Catholics support Congress passing a law guaranteeing access to legal abortions nationwide. And most oppose a national law that would ban access to abortion nationwide.
While most Hispanic adults think Congress should allow access to abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy, about half support bans after 15 weeks.
Four in 10 Hispanic adults view abortion policy as one of the most important issues in the upcoming election, similar to adults overall (48%). Among Hispanic Protestants, non-evangelical Protestants are more likely to support legalizing abortion nationwide than evangelical Hispanics (65% vs. 47%).
Additionally, large majorities of Hispanic Protestants and Hispanic Catholics support their state allowing a pregnant person to obtain a legal abortion if a fetal abnormality would prevent the child from surviving outside the womb, if the person became pregnant as a result of rape or incest, or the person’s health is seriously endangered by the pregnancy. Half also support the state allowing access to legal abortion for any reason.
Most Hispanic Catholics (64%) and and about half Hispanic Protestants (56%) believe that religious groups should help immigrants residing in the U.S. illegally, similar to the general population.
Half of Hispanic Catholics (49%) and Hispanic Protestants (51%) consider immigration one of the most important issues in the upcoming election, similar to all U.S. adults (49%). While about equal shares of Hispanic Catholics trust Kamala Harris (38%) and Donald Trump (44%) to handle immigration, Hispanic Protestants are more likely to trust Trump (53%) than Harris (29%). About half of Hispanic Protestants say that Trump represents their views on important policies better than Harris, while about a third of Hispanic Catholics agree.
Hispanic Protestants and Hispanic Catholics are also largely similar in terms of many of their broader religious and political beliefs and behaviors. Among both groups, 6 in 10 say they are both religious and spiritual and 2 in 10 say they are spiritual but not religious. Only about 1 in 10 report they are either religious but not spiritual or neither religious nor spiritual.
Half of Hispanic Protestants view their religion as extremely or very important to their identity, while 4 in 10 Hispanic Catholics say the same.
About a fifth of Hispanic Protestants and Hispanic Catholics report they attend religious services at least once a week, while 4 in 10 attend at least monthly and a fifth do not attend at all. Non-evangelical Hispanic Protestants are more likely than evangelicals to say they never attend (30% vs. 10%).
Fifty-seven percent of Hispanic Catholics have a favorable impression of Pope Francis, 25% are unfavorable, and 18% say they don’t know enough about him to say. In comparison, only 31% of Hispanic Protestants have a positive view of the pope, 36% have an unfavorable opinion, and 30% don’t know enough about him to have an opinion. Overall, 40% of the public has a favorable impression of Pope Francis, 25% are unfavorable, 34% don’t know enough to say.
A majority of both Hispanic Protestants and Hispanic Catholics identify as political moderates, More Hispanic Catholics than Hispanic Protestants identify as Democrats (43% vs. 31%).
The nationwide poll was conducted September 12-16, 2024 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 2,028 adults, including 712 Hispanic adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3.1 percentage points and the margin of sampling error for Hispanic adults is +/- 5.2 percentage points.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (September 2024). About half of Hispanic Protestants and Hispanic Catholics favor legalizing abortion nationwide
