The abortion issue is the the biggest motivator people have to get out and protest at the moment, according to a recent Gallup Poll, with 31% citing it as the reason.
Beyond abortion, other issues that inspire protesters are law enforcement or Black Lives Matter (22%), women's rights (19%), civil or equal rights (11%), and government or political issues (10%).
Immigration barely resisters as an issue to protest this year, according to Gallup, and gun control is currently mentioned by 8% of U.S. adults.
Gallup first asked Americans about their desire to protest in 1965 amid civil rights and Vietnam War demonstrations, with civil rights or racial equality mentioned by about a third of respondents in that poll.
The latest data are from a July 5-26 poll that was conducted shortly after protests erupted in response to the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling on June 24, which overturned a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and made it a state-by-state decision.
The desire to protest is influenced by one's political ideology, party identification, and annual household income level, with left-leaning individuals and those of higher socioeconomic status much more inclined to want to take action, according to Gallup.
Liberals, Democrats, and upper-income adults are more than twice as likely as conservative, Republican, and lower-income adults to say they have wanted to join a demonstration. Women and college graduates are also significantly more likely than men and non-college-educated adults to say they have desired to protest.
Gallup suggests that the abortion issue may spur Democrats to vote in the midterm elections this November. "Whether Democrats' intensity about the abortion issue eclipses the significant political challenges Democrats face this November remains to be seen."
Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted July 5-26, 2022, with a random sample of 1,013 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 75% cellphone respondents and 25% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region.