WASHINGTON (AP) — A solid majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban while a growing number support the option of abortion for any reason, a novel poll shows, underscoring the politically perilous situation for candidates who oppose abortion rights as the November election approaches.
About 6 in 10 Americans say their state should generally allow a person to have a legal abortion if they don’t want to get pregnant for any reason, according to a novel poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from June 2021, a year before the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to the procedure, when about half of Americans said legal abortion should be available under those circumstances.
Americans largely oppose the strict bans that have gone into effect in Republican-dominated states since the Supreme Court ruling two years ago. Complete bans with few exceptions have gone into effect in 14 Republican-led states, while three others ban abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, often before women realize they are pregnant.
They also overwhelmingly oppose nationwide abortion bans and restrictions. And views on abortion – which have long been relatively stable – may now be becoming more liberal.
Vincent Wheeler, a 47-year-old Republican from Los Angeles, said abortion should be available for any reason until viability is reached, at which point doctors believe the fetus can survive outside the womb.
“There are so many reasons why someone might want or need an abortion that it has to be up to the individual what they want to do in that particular situation,” Wheeler said, acknowledging that some of her fellow Republicans might disagree.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has refused to support a nationwide abortion ban, saying the issue should be left to states. But even that stance is unlikely to satisfy most Americans, who continue to oppose many abortion bans in their own states and believe Congress should pass a law guaranteeing abortion access nationwide, the poll found.
Seven in 10 Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a slight enhance from last year. About three in 10 say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
Robert Hood, a 69-year-old from Universal City, Texas, who describes himself as an “independent liberal,” has believed since he was 18 in high school that abortion should be legal for any reason because “life is full of gray areas.” He remembers reading stories as a teenager about women who died trying to obtain an abortion before the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling established a constitutional right to abortion.
“Pregnancy is complicated,” he said. “Women should make their decision after consulting with their doctor and family, but at the end of the day it is their decision, their body and their life.”
He said he would support national protection of abortion rights.
Views on abortion have long been nuanced and at times contradictory. The novel AP-NORC poll shows that despite widespread opposition to abortion restrictions in the country, a significant number of people hold opinions and values that are internally inconsistent.
About half of those who believe a woman should be able to have an abortion for any reason also say their state should not allow abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy, and about a quarter say their state should not allow abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Yet the enormous majority of Americans—more than 8 in 10—continue to believe abortion should be legal in extreme cases, such as when a patient’s life would be endangered by continuing the pregnancy. About 8 in 10 say the same about a pregnancy caused by rape or incest, or when a fetal abnormality would prevent the baby from surviving outside the womb.
National abortion bans are generally unpopular: About 8 in 10 Americans believe Congress should not pass a federal law banning abortion, about three-quarters believe there should be no federal law banning abortion after six weeks, and 6 in 10 oppose a federal law banning abortion after 15 weeks.
Most Republicans – about two-thirds, according to the poll – believe that there should not be a nationwide ban on abortion.
During the campaign, Trump courted abortion opponents by pointing to the appointment of three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe, but his strategy on abortion policy is to defer to the states, an attempt to take a more cautious stance on an issue that has become a major faint point for Republicans since the 2022 Dobbs decision.
Despite Trump’s comments, Penny Johnson, 73, of Sherman Oaks, California, said she was very afraid that if Republicans win the White House and Congress in November, they might seek a nationwide ban on abortion.
“Many women will die,” she said.
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The survey of 1,088 adults was conducted June 20-24, 2024. The sample came from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The sampling margin of error is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points for all respondents.
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Fernando reported from Chicago. Associated Press pollster Linley Sanders contributed to this report.
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