July 12, 2024
Most adults support protecting access to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, a type of fertility treatment where eggs are combined with sperm outside the body in a lab to form an embryo. But the public is more divided regarding the fate of unused embryos produced during IVF and many lack firm opinions about this aspect of the process. A quarter of adults favor making it illegal to destroy embryos created during the process of IVF, about a third oppose such a law, while 4 in 10 neither favor nor oppose.
Few adults strongly support the idea that human life begins at conception. About a quarter of the public say the concept that a fertilized egg is a person with the same rights as a pregnant woman describes their views extremely or very well and another 18% say somewhat well. About half say that doesn’t describe their opinion well.
About 6 in 10 adults favor protecting access to IVF, including 77% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans. Nearly half of independents say they neither favor nor oppose access.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans or independents to oppose legislation prohibiting the destruction of embryos created through IVF.
Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats or independents to say the statement, “human life begins at conception, so a fertilized egg is a person with the same rights as a pregnant woman,” describes their views extremely or very well.
The nationwide poll was conducted June 20-24, 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 1,088 adults. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.0 percentage points.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (July 2024). https://apnorc.org/projects/most-support-protecting-access-to-ivf/
