By Yoselin Blanco-Chavez
Trinity Times Correspondent
As the United States continues to grapple with the abortion debate following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, students at colleges with religious traditions appear to be as divided on the issue as the broader population.
National surveys show that views on abortion in the United States vary widely by age and religious affiliation. About 63% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% say it should be illegal in all or most cases, according to a June 2025 Pew Research Center survey. Support is strongest among adults under 30, with 76% saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases, Pew reported.
Religion remains a significant factor in shaping views. Roughly 86% of religiously unaffiliated Americans support legal abortion in all or most cases, while about 73% of white evangelical Protestants say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, according to Pew. Catholics and other Christian groups fall between those positions.
“You cannot support the killing of an innocent baby,” said Claire Nkengafac, president of Trinity Washington University’s Sister Fellowship, a nondenominational Christian club that discusses religious teachings and worship. Some members of the group oppose abortion, viewing it as restricting the birth of a child.
Nkengafac said she believes children are a gift from God and that the Bible prohibits abortion, though she acknowledged that churches’ teachings and interpretations vary.
While polling specific to students at religious colleges is limited, broader research suggests that younger adults, including many college students, tend to be more supportive of legal abortion than the general adult population, particularly those who are less religiously affiliated, according to national surveys of young adults conducted by Pew Research Center.
In June 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion, overturning Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). The 6-3 decision returned authority over abortion laws to individual states, creating a patchwork of policies nationwide, with some states banning or severely restricting abortion and others protecting access.
Although public reaction to the ruling has evolved in the years since, abortion remains a deeply polarizing issue. Ethical frameworks rooted in religion continue to influence how individuals understand the debate, though the issue is often more complex than a simple pro-life or pro-choice divide.
According to Jeannine Marino, an assistant professor of religious studies at Trinity, discussions about abortion often overlook broader social and moral concerns.
She said that identifying as pro-life can extend beyond opposition to abortion and include support for immigrants, mothers and children, as well as efforts to address racism and poverty, themes reflected in Catholic social teaching and papal statements on human dignity.
Marino also said that lowering abortion rates requires addressing affordability barriers, access to health care and social support for families, including the financial pressures facing hospitals and patients.
Trinity, which has Catholic roots and was founded as a liberal arts college for women, enrolls students from a wide range of religious backgrounds. While some campus groups, such as the Trinity Sister Fellowship, include members who oppose abortion, other students approach the issue differently.
“There is an argument through religion that life begins at conception, and that all these things exist because God would be upset, but scientifically that simply is not true,” said Bailey Squire, a Trinity student and president of the university’s Women’s Student Action Coalition. “A fetus does not have any sentience, no thoughts, it is not living.
While ethical and legal debates continue over the implications of abortion, many scientists who study human development agree on the underlying biology. Maureen L. Condic, previously a neurobiology researcher at the University of Utah School of Medicine and now a university ombudsman and mediator at The Catholic University of America, has written that standard embryology textbooks identify fertilization as the point at which a new, genetically distinct human organism begins to exist, a conclusion she stresses is a matter of biological description rather than moral judgment. That definition is consistent with widely used medical texts such as The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology by Keith L. Moore, T.V.N. Persaud and Mark G. Torchia, which describes fertilization as the beginning of human development.
“There are too many situations that can be harmful to people if they were unable to get abortions, even then – once these kids are in the world, the government does not want to support them, so why have them?” Squire said.
Squire also said that Trinity’s identity as a women-centered institution allows students to encounter diverse perspectives that challenge traditional and patriarchal frameworks.
National data show that many people who seek abortions are already parents and that lower-income individuals are disproportionately affected by abortion restrictions, according to surveys from the Guttmacher Institute and KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization. KFF reports that about 14% of U.S. women ages 18 to 49 say they have had an abortion at some point in their lives, with higher rates among women with lower incomes and women of color.
Religious views on abortion are often more varied than they appear in political debates. In an analysis of religious perspectives on abortion, journalist Elisha Brown reported that some Christian denominations support abortion access under certain circumstances, despite broader assumptions that religious groups uniformly oppose it. Brown cited traditions such as the United Church of Christ, which has affirmed abortion as a matter of bodily autonomy and medical necessity in some cases.
The abortion debate is also closely tied to broader political issues, including health care access, social safety nets and public policy, Marino said.
Marta Bystrowska, a senior at The Catholic University of America, said that some political policies framed as pro-life do not align with broader support for women and families.
“Many policies that people are pushing for against abortion also affect women’s health, safe sex, and access to resources,” Bystrowska said.
Religion’s role in shaping abortion views remains complex, with beliefs intersecting with politics, science and personal experience. As students at Trinity continue to navigate these conversations, the issue reflects broader national divisions – and the challenge of balancing faith, autonomy and social responsibility.