77% Of Americans Support Upholding Roe V. Wade

According to a new poll by NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist, 77% of Americans support keeping the protections enshrined in the landmark Roe v. Wade case, but 26% of them want to increase restrictions on abortion. Only 13% say that it should be overturned.

In a separate question, respondents were asked to choose which option comes closest to their stance on abortion. 61% of those polled said that they favored some sort of restrictions on the procedure, including: only allowing it within the first three months (23%), only allowing it in cases of rape, incest, or where the woman’s life is in danger (29%), or only allowing it in cases where the woman’s life is in danger (9%). 18% support a woman being able to have an abortion at any point in her pregnancy while 9% advocate for women never being able to have abortions at all. Even though a majority supports restricting abortion, 53% of Americans also say that they would not vote for a candidate who would appoint judges that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

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Additionally, the number of people who self-identify as pro-choice is the highest that it has been since 2012. 57% of respondents supported a woman’s right to choose, whereas 37% advocated against the woman’s right to choose. Support for abortion has skyrocketed recently as conservatives’ attacks on reproductive rights have intensified. The new restrictive abortion laws passed in places like Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri have brought the debate to the forefront of American politics, forcing ordinary Americans to realize the potential danger of losing the protections of Roe. This is a 10% increase from February when 47% of Americans identified as pro-choice and another 47% as pro-life.

One of the most fascinating results of the poll was that gender was not the main divider between pro-life and pro-choice, but that party was. Not only do Republican women overwhelmingly support restricting abortion, but they support it significantly more than Republican men. 9% more Republican women considered themselves pro-life than Republican men. Shockingly, 62% of GOP women said that they opposed bills that would allow for abortions in cases of rape or incest, whereas almost 60% of GOP men supported such bills. Almost 75% of Republican women also said that life begins at conception, compared to less than half of Republican men.

Article by Daniel Knopf