In a recent ABC News and Washington Post poll, 55 percent of Americans say that abortion should be legal in all or at least most cases, while 41 percent believe it should be entirely or mostly illegal. ABC News and the Washington Post have been conducting these polls since 1995, and the averaged results reveal a 55-to-42 percent legalize versus illegalize abortion rating. This year's trend is almost right on target with America's past beliefs; however, there were specific divides with other poll findings.

The poll was conducted by telephone from July 18 to July 21, 2013 in both English and Spanish. The sample population was random and included 1,002 adult participants by both landline and cell-phone voting.

The more than 2-to-1 margin revealed 63 percent of Americans prefer abortion laws to be decided constitutionally rather than by each state individually. There were only 30 percent who opposed that notion. The current abortion law, also known as Roe v. Wade, is supported under the United States Constitution, which deems it the fundamental right of any American woman to abort up to nine months of pregancy. The Supreme Court's landmark decision that disallowed many state and federal restrictions on abortion, was made in 1973 and spurred a national debate that still continues to this day.

There are so many varying opinions on what should and shouldn't be permitted when it comes to a woman's decision to abort her baby. In fact, 56 percent say abortion should be legal without limitation only up to 20 weeks of pregnancy, while 27 percent agree with a law that permits abortions up to 24 weeks, or about six months. Eight percent voted with the stringent opinion that abortion should have never been made legal, not matter how many weeks old the fetus is.

When looking at the divide between Democrats and Republicans, there was blatant disagreement on the simple question of whether or not abortion be legal. A majority of Democrats voted for the legality of abortion at 64 percent, while 32 percent thought it should be illegal. Meanwhile, Republicans voted the opposite, which is consistent with past legislation proclivities; their majority — 58 percent — voted for making abortions illegal, and only 38 percent voted for legal abortions.

Recently, in Alabama, one of the most dominantly Republican states in the U.S., a federal judge delayed the enforcement of their new abortion law until March 24, 2014. The new Alabama abortion law tightens the restrictions of providers, which could force more than half of the state's abortion clinics to close. In Mississippi, another Republican state, a new law threatens to close the one abortion clinic available to women because hospitals aren't granting hospital privileges for its physicians.

When religion comes into play, 50 percent of Catholics believe abortion should be legal while 45 percent disagree. Evangelical white Protestants vote the opposite, as 31 percent believe abortion should be illegal and an opposing 66 percent believe it should be illegal.

Taking race into consideration, a variety of opinions were drawn between whites, blacks, and hispanics. Fifty-five percent of whites believe abortion should be legal, while 42 percent believe it should be illegal. There was a similar margin with hispanics, although they weighed in the opposite, as 46 percent believe abortion should be legal and 50 percent believe it should be illegal. Researchers believe this is consistent with their religious beliefs, as a disproportionate amount of hispanics are catholic, even though the overall catholic vote didn't lean toward illegalizing abortions — it was still divided almost evenly. The racial statistics cannot be ignored in the case of blacks; 69 percent of blacks voted to legalize abortion, while 30 percent voted the opposite. Black women are more than 4.8 times more likely than non-hispanic white women to have an abortion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Abortion will remain a divided issue — though, one that can never be ignored. It questions a woman's rights to her health and body, just as much as it looks at the potential life of the fetus. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 3,315 human fetus are aborted every day in America, and based on new data from January 2013, there have been an estimated 55.7 million abortions in the U.S. since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Overall, regardless of political affiliation, religion, or race, most Americans prefer federal law over individual state laws, and in addition, conservative parties believe the U.S. Constitution's decision should take precedence over all else.