A vast majority of people still support legal pregnancy terminations, but fewer believe restrictions on abortion should be lifted than was the case five years ago, a poll has shown.
Of just over 2,000 men and women questioned in the UK last May, 59% agreed that "abortion should be made legally available for all who want it".
A similar survey in 2001 found that 62% of people held this view.
And 63% of people taking part in the latest poll believed a woman should not have to continue with her pregnancy if she wanted an abortion, with 18% having the opposite opinion.
The survey was commissioned from Ipsos Mori by the BPAS, Britain's biggest abortion provider, which wants to see a change in the law to make pregnancy termination easier.
Abortion is legal in the UK up to the 24th week of pregnancy. In all cases, the Abortion Act requires two doctors to certify that a termination is justified on health grounds. The same regulations do not apply in Northern Ireland.
The BPAS is calling for an end to the two doctors rule and for nurses to be able to dispense the abortion pill, which can be given when a woman has been pregnant for no more than nine weeks.
The survey showed that attitudes had shifted more towards the middle ground since 2001.
Fewer people taking part in the new poll had "very strong" opinions either supporting or opposing abortion than they did five years ago.
Last year the BPAS, formerly known as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, carried out almost 50,000 abortions in the UK, 85% of which were on behalf of the NHS.
