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PHOENIX — Arizonans' attitudes about abortion have hardly changed at all since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the procedure more than three decades ago.

A new statewide poll shows that 61 percent of voters questioned want to uphold the historic 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned laws in many states, including Arizona, that made terminating a pregnancy a crime. Another 30 percent want the ruling overturned, with the balance saying they have no opinion.

Those figures nearly mirror the results of a 1992 initiative that would have constitutionally banned abortion in Arizona. That failed by 69-31 percent.

A 1980 poll of the Rocky Mountain region found 64 percent of those questioned opposed to a constitutional ban.

And pollster Bruce Merrill, who conducted the latest survey, said questions he has raised on the issue for the last three decades, since the high court ruled in Roe v. Wade, have consistently have shown a 2-1 margin of Arizonans against once again making abortion illegal.

Despite the results, Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, insisted that her group, which wants to outlaw abortion on demand once again, is making progress in moving public attitude.

"In recent years, national polls have shown a trend toward a bare majority believing that Roe should be overturned and that abortion should not be legal," she said. "This poll is one exception to that."

But a nationwide survey done in January for CNN came up with numbers virtually identical to the new survey done for KAET-TV, the Phoenix PBS affiliate.

Whatever the polls show, Herrod said, efforts by groups like hers to limit abortions are having an effect. She said the rate of pregnancies that end in abortion has been declining.

That trend has shown up in Arizona, where the number of abortions in 2005 was slightly lower than a decade earlier despite population growth.

The survey of 600 voters, conducted last week, has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.