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How Americans Really Feel About Abortion: The Sometimes Surprising Poll Results As Court Ruling Threatens Mifepristone Access [1]

['Alison Durkee', 'Forbes Staff']

Date: 2023-04-11

A federal judge ruled Friday the abortion drug mifepristone should have its federal approval revoked, the latest blow to abortion rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June—coming even as polling shows a clear majority of Americans supports abortion remaining legal, even if there are varying degrees of support depending on the circumstances.

Pro- and anti-abortion rights activists protest during the 50th annual March for Life rally in front ... [+] of the U.S. Supreme Court on January 20 in Washington, DC.

Broad support for abortion rights: Gallup polls show Americans’ support for abortion in all or most cases at 85% as of May 2022, higher than when polling began in 1975 (76%), and the Pew Research Center finds 62% of adults believe abortion should be legal, compared to 60% in 1995—though there has been fluctuation, with support dropping to a low of 47% in 2009.

Support remains steady post-Dobbs: Americans’ broad support for abortion has largely remained steady since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, with Pew’s polling finding that it went up from 61% in March 2022 to 62% in July, after the court’s ruling, and a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) poll finding that while support for abortion has broadly grown since 2010 (now at 64%), there was little change in the months before and after the court’s ruling.

Steady support for Roe: Support for the Supreme Court’s abortion precedent in Roe v. Wade was broadly popular before it was overturned, with a November 2021 Quinnipiac poll finding that 63% agreed with the court’s ruling, and 72% of respondents in a January 2022 Marquette Law School poll and 69% of January 2022 CNN poll respondents opposed it being overturned.

Roe’s overturning unpopular: A Pew poll taken after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling in July found 57% disapproved of the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the PRRI poll taken throughout 2022 found 63% opposed Roe being overturned, including 43% who strongly opposed it.

Slim support for abortion bans: An August Kaiser Family Foundation poll found only 25% of respondents wanted their state to outlaw abortion—including 32% of residents in states that banned abortion after Roe was overturned—while a Gallup poll released in February found Americans’ dissatisfaction with the country’s abortion laws was at a record high of 69%, with 46% wanting laws to be less strict while only 15% think they should be stricter.

Support for abortion exemptions: A Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES)/SurveyMonkey survey released in October found 91% support abortion when the woman’s life is in danger and 86% support exceptions in the case of rape or incest.

When abortion support drops: The further into the pregnancy, with a June 2022 Gallup poll finding that while 67% support abortion in the first trimester of a pregnancy, that drops to 36% in the second trimester and 20% in the third trimester, versus 71% who believe abortion should not be legal in the final months of pregnancy.

Partisan split—but not in all cases: Democrats are statistically far more likely to support abortion rights than Republicans, with PRRI finding that only 36% of Republicans support abortion being at least mostly legal versus 86% of Democrats—though the PORES poll found 76% and 86% of Republicans support exceptions for rape and incest and when the mother’s life is at risk, respectively.

The religious support abortion rights—mostly: Pew found in March 2022 that Americans with religious affiliations are far more likely to oppose abortion than the nonreligious (84% of whom believe abortion should be legal), though Pew and PRRI found that with the exception of white evangelical Protestants, Latter-day Saints, Hispanic Protestants and Jehovah’s Witnesses, a majority of every other religious group polled favor abortion rights.

Gender split—not as big as you might think: Women are slightly more likely to support abortion than men, with PRRI finding 65% of women want abortion to be legal versus 62% of men, and LGBTQ Americans are the most supportive of abortion, with 83% backing abortion being legal as compared with 63% of cisgender heterosexual Americans.

Asian Americans most supportive: PRRI’s polling found majorities of every race support abortion being legal, though support was higher among Black (73% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases) and Asian (75%) respondents than those who are white and Hispanic (62% and 60%, respectively) or multiracial (66%).

Support drops with age: The PRRI poll found that while more than 60% of all age groups polled support abortion being legal in all or most cases, support declined with age, with 68% of 18 to 29-year-olds backing abortion rights versus 64% of respondents ages 30-49, 63% of those 50-64 and 62% of respondents 65 and older.

Support increases with more education: PRRI found support for abortion also increased with how much education a person has received, with 55% of high school graduates supporting abortion being at least mostly legal versus 64% who attended some college, 71% with a four-year college degree and 75% with a postgraduate degree (Pew and a Washington Post/ABC poll from 2021 found a similar correlation).

Parents less likely to support abortion rights: An All In Together poll, conducted in September 2021 with Lake Research and Emerson College Polling, found 36% of those with children in their house opposed a Texas ban on abortion versus 54.9% without kids, and the Post/ABC poll similarly found 58% of parents want the Supreme Court to uphold Roe v. Wade versus 62% of non-parents.

Most States Support Abortion Being Legal—Even Red Ones: The PRRI poll found majorities of residents in all but seven states support abortion being at least mostly legal—with the exceptions being South Dakota (42% say it should be legal), Utah (42%), Arkansas (43%), Oklahoma (45%), Idaho (49%), Mississippi (49%) and Tennessee (49%)—and there was no state where more than 14% of respondents said abortion should be illegal in all cases.

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[1] Url: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/04/11/how-americans-really-feel-about-abortion-the-sometimes-surprising-poll-results-as-court-ruling-threatens-mifepristone-access/?sh=41ba9137933c

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