A new poll finds that three-quarters of women of reproductive age in the United States oppose states deciding whether abortion is legal, including majorities of Democrats and independents.
At least half of women ages 18 to 49, regardless of party, said they oppose a state-by-state approach, according to a poll released Wednesday by health policy research group KFF.
Opposition was highest among Democratic women at 88%, but the survey also found that 53% of Republicans and 73% of women who identify as independents oppose the idea.
More than two-thirds of people who live in states with abortion bans or gestational age limits oppose leaving abortion decisions up to the states.
Two years after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, 14 states have banned abortions and six others have implemented measures limiting the length of pregnancy from six to 15 weeks.
Former President Trump touted the decision to repeal Roe, calling it a popular decision. After refusing to take a position for months, Trump is now banking on the message that states should be able to determine their own abortion policies.
At a press conference last week, Trump said he thought abortion was “going to be a very small issue” in this election.
Democrats are campaigning on abortion rights, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has become the administration’s point person on reproductive rights issues, vowing to fight to restore Roe v. Wade protections to all states amid pressure from some progressives to go further.
Republicans are struggling to find a winning message on abortion policy.
Under Trump, Republicans have openly moved away from embracing calls for a federal abortion ban, much to the dismay of anti-abortion groups.
KFF’s findings support past polls showing most Americans oppose a decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The survey found that three in four women of reproductive age believe abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances: 38% said it should be legal in all circumstances, and 37% said it should be legal in most circumstances. Only 8% of women said abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.
Brittney Frederiksen, deputy director of women’s health policy at KFF, said the survey shows that people’s lived experiences influence their views across party lines.
The survey found that one in seven women of reproductive age said they had had an abortion at some point in their lives, with similar rates among Republican (12%), Democrat (14%) and independent women (15%).
“I think it’s a relatively common health service, and people want to be able to have it when they need it or want it,” Frederiksen said. “I think this is going to be a partisan divide, and the reality is, it doesn’t matter party ID: you may need an abortion at some point in your life.”
Nearly 1 in 10 women of reproductive age say they personally know someone who has had difficulty obtaining an abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned, including 11 percent of Hispanic women and 13 percent of women who live in states that ban abortion.
Among the barriers cited were traveling out of state for treatment, not knowing where to go and not having money to cover the costs.
Nationwide, three-quarters of Democratic women of reproductive age and six in 10 independent women said they were concerned about whether they could get an abortion in the case of a pregnancy-related emergency. The survey found that 42% of Republican women shared the same concerns.
The survey also explores women’s abortion experiences and views in Florida, where abortion is on the ballot this November, and in Arizona, a key battleground state where an abortion referendum awaits approval amid a legal battle.
The survey did not ask people about their opinions of each ballot measure, but found that abortion is widely supported in both states.
Overwhelming majorities of women in both states (70 percent in Arizona and 72 percent in Florida) said abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Florida’s amendment would need 60 percent of the vote to become law, while Arizona’s would need 50 percent to put the measure on the ballot.
With the abortion legal landscape constantly changing, the survey found large gaps in awareness of abortion laws across states.
Fewer than half of women of reproductive age knew the current abortion policy status of their state, about a quarter misrepresented the situation, and a third said they were unsure.
One in four respondents did not even know how to obtain an abortion or where to find information about it if they wanted or needed one. Most respondents were aware of medication abortion but were unsure whether it was legal, even in states where abortion is commonly permitted.
The survey of 3,901 women between the ages of 18 and 49 was conducted May 13 and June 18. The margin of sampling error for the national sample of reproductive-age women, reproductive-age women in Arizona, and reproductive-age women in Florida is plus or minus 2 percentage points, 8 percentage points, and 6 percentage points, respectively.
