Americans are increasingly likely to say they support access to abortion “for any reason.” The poll released Tuesday From The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Policy Research.
A majority of respondents in the June survey (61%) said states should allow legal abortion if “for any reason, you don’t want to end the pregnancy.”
That marks a 12-point increase from the 49% of respondents who expressed the same view in a June 2021 survey, conducted a year before the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.
Support for the right to abortion “for any reason” has also increased from 54% in June of last year.
This growing support cuts across political and gender lines.
Since 2021, support for this view has increased 11 points among Republicans, from 27% to 38%, 14 points among Democrats, from 69% to 83%, and 11 points among independents, from 46% to 57%.
Among men, approval rose 8 points, from 51% to 59%, while among women it rose 17 points, from 46% to 63%.
A total of 70 percent say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, up from 64 percent a year ago.
Abortion access has become an increasingly prominent issue in U.S. politics. Since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in 2022, 14 Republican-majority states have enacted total abortion bans with limited exceptions, and three others restrict abortions after about six weeks.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been careful to address abortion rights, widely seen as the GOP’s least popular issue, touting his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who secured the majority that overturned Roe v. Wade and supporting the idea that states should be able to make their own abortion laws.
President Biden and Democrats in Congress are supporting legislation that would protect Roe at the federal level.
The poll was conducted June 20-24 among 1,088 adults. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
