Almost 2/3rds of Americans support free choice (typically with some term limits 16-20 weeks). The folks who don't? Come from ... the same group that wants the progressive wing of the Dem party to stay out of their business. You can't have it both ways. If you want the gov to stay out of your business, then?
Nearly a Year After Roe’s Demise, Americans’ Views of Abortion Access Increasingly Vary by Where They Live
In states with abortion bans, a rise in the share of adults saying it should be easier to access abortion in the area where they live
How we did this
Nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs ruling overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that had guaranteed a national right to abortion, overall public support for legal abortion remains largely unchanged.
However, a growing share of Americans living in states where abortion is prohibited say abortions are hard to obtain in their local area. And the share of people in these states who say access to abortion should be easier has increased since August 2019.
Today, a 54% majority of Americans nationwide say it would be very easy or somewhat easy to get an abortion in the area where they live, down from 65% in 2019. About four-in-ten (42%) say it would be very or somewhat difficult to get an abortion in areas near them, up 10 percentage points from four years ago.
The most striking change has occurred among people living in states where abortion is now prohibited: About seven-in-ten (71%) say it would be difficult to get an abortion, up from the half who said this in 2019.
Chart shows people in states that prohibited abortion after Dobbs increasingly likely to say it should be easier to obtain in their area
A majority (56%) of those living in states where abortion is restricted or in legal dispute say it would be difficult to get an abortion today, up 15 points from four years ago.
The new survey by Pew Research Center, conducted among 5,079 adults from March 27 to April 2, 2023, on the Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel, finds that views about access to abortion are little changed in states where abortion is still legal. Just 22% of adults in these states say it would be difficult to get an abortion; 19% said this in 2019.
The survey finds that Americans are also more likely to say it should be easier to obtain an abortion than they were in 2019. About a third of adults (34%) say it should be easier for someone in the area where they live to obtain an abortion, an 8-point increase since 2019. This shift stems largely from those who live in states where abortion is now prohibited (43% say access should be easier, up from 31% in 2019) and those in states where it is restricted (38%, up from 27%).
Chart shows continued public support for legal abortion, but with a wide partisan divide
These changes come at a time when Americans’ views on whether abortion should be legal overall are nearly identical to what they were following the Dobbs ruling last June. About six-in-ten Americans (62%) continue to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared with 36% who say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
As has long been the case, there are deep partisan differences in opinions about abortion: Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases (84% vs. 40%).
While these views have changed little in recent years, support for legal abortion is higher than it was a decade ago. Much of the change has come among Democrats: A decade ago, roughly two-thirds of Democrats favored legal abortion. There has been far less change in Republicans’ views over this period.
Most Americans (80%) say their views on abortion have not changed over the past year, while 13% say their views have changed a little and 6% say they have changed a lot.
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