Vast Majority Of Americans Don’t Want Abortion Bans, Poll Finds—Even In States Where It’s Already Outlawed

Topline

Only a quarter of Americans want their state to ban abortion now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade—including less than a third of people who live in states that already outlaw the procedure—a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds, as more Republican-led states try to enact new abortion bans and as the midterm elections loom.

Key Facts

Big Number

33%. That’s the share of all respondents who supported the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, while 65% disapproved of it. Republicans are the only demographic polled—spanning party affiliation, gender and race—in which a majority of respondents approved of the decision.

Tangent

Some 17 states had trigger or pre-Roe abortion bans for the purposes of KFF’s polling: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The states that protect abortion access as identified by KFF are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, plus Washington, D.C.

What We Don’t Know

What impact abortion will have on the midterms, as Democratic strategists and politicians hope Americans’ opposition to the Supreme Court ruling will increase voter turnout. The KFF poll, similar to other previous polls, found 55% of respondents say abortion will be “very important to their midterm vote,” including 77% of Democrats, and 43% say the Supreme Court’s decision has made them “more motivated” to vote. That being said, abortion still ranks behind inflation when it comes to the issues that are most important to people’s votes (77% said inflation was very important), and independent voters appear less swayed by abortion than Democrats. Independents rank abortion as their fourth most important political issue, the KFF poll found, and only 56% said they plan to support candidates who favor protecting abortion access. Other polling has shown Americans’ anger over abortion may not translate to the ballot box, with respondents who support the ruling indicating they’re more likely to vote than Americans who disapprove of it—possibly because they feel politicians aren’t doing enough to address the issue.

Key Background

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, leading to a wave of state-level abortion bans, with even more poised to soon pass. The West Virginia legislature is now considering passing an abortion ban after the state’s 19th century-era ban was blocked in court, and the Indiana Senate passed a bill on Saturday that could make the state the first to enact a new abortion ban in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe. What abortion bans should look like in the wake of Roe’s overturning is an increasingly fraught issue, however. While anti-abortion advocates have pushed for harsh abortion bans that don’t contain exemptions for rape or incest, KFF’s poll is in line with other polling showing Americans are broadly supportive of abortion rights and do not want total abortion bans without those exemptions. As a result, both Indiana and West Virginia’s proposed bills contain exemptions for rape and incest—angering both sides of the debate, as abortion rights advocates believe the bills go too far and anti-abortion advocates believe they don’t go far enough.

Further Reading

Most Americans In States Banning Abortion Disapprove Of Roe V. Wade Decision, Poll Finds (Forbes)

Biden Says Voting ‘Only Way’ To Fix Roe V. Wade Ruling—But Here’s What Polls Indicate For Midterms (Forbes)

With Roe Gone, Republicans Quarrel Over How Far to Push Abortion Bans (New York Times)

How Americans Really Feel About Abortion: The Sometimes Surprising Poll Results As Supreme Court Overturns Roe V. Wade (Forbes)