Americans’ openness to using birth control plummeted over the last year, according to Gallup’s annual poll on moral issues—as tolerance of a number of behaviors like gambling and having children out of wedlock also dropped after President Donald Trump’s first year back in office.
About 83% of Americans believe using birth control is morally acceptable—down from 90% in 2025.
A clear majority of Americans polled—about 83%—still believe using birth control is morally acceptable, but this figure is still down seven percentage points from the 90% acceptance rate recorded in 2025.
Tolerance for four other behaviors fell over the last year, Gallup’s annual poll found, including a nine percentage point drop in approval for having children outside of marriage—only 58% of respondents now approve, down from 67% in 2025 and down from a high acceptance rate of 70% in 2023.
Only 57% of respondents approved of gambling, despite widespread proliferation of sports betting since the landmark Supreme Court case effectively legalized it in 2018, and polling conducted by the American Gaming Association in 2025 finding about 57% of Americans placed some form of bet at a casino or sportsbook over the last year.
