Over 75% of Democratic voters support access to abortion for any reason, while bipartisan support is at the highest it’s been since the 1970s, according to a new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll published Monday.
Since the Supreme Court declared in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center that abortion is not a constitutional right in June 2022, voters have weighed in on the issue at the state level, with pro-abortion advocates successfully passing sevenballot initiatives in the last year and a half. A poll found that support for abortion is reaching some of the highest levels seen since Roe v. Wade, with 77% of Democrats responding that they would support women having access to abortion for any reason, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Those numbers are up from 2016, when only 52% responded affirmatively to allowing abortion for any reason, according to the WSJ. Just over 50% of independents agreed, while Republican support came in much lower at 33%, down from 34.72% in 2021.
Nearly 90% of voters said that they support a woman’s ability to get an abortion in the case of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is at risk, according to the WSJ.
“For many Americans, this is an issue that has nuance,” Jocelyn Kiley, associate director of U.S. politics research for Pew Research Center, told the WSJ.
The poll was conducted from Oct. 19 through the 24 and drew responses from 1,163 registered voters, with a margin of error of +/- 4.0 according to the WSJ.
The issue has become a major sticking point for the 2024 Republican primary election, with GOP candidates like Nikki Haley arguing that America must find “consensus” on the issue. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, meanwhile, has often touted signing Florida’s heartbeat bill, making it illegal in Florida to have an abortion after a heartbeat is detected.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign said in June that abortion would be “front and center” during his run for a second term in 2024 and that they expected it to “be a really galvanizing issue.”
Kate Anderson on November 20, 2023
