A year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, most adults in the U.S. still think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, an AP-NORC poll found.
About 60% of Americans believe Congress should pass a law promising legal access to abortion across the country. The findings are consistent with a July 2022 poll conducted by AP-NORC after the ruling was first overturned.
Still, there is political divide. While Democrats largely favor abortion rights, about 32% of Republicans are in favor of a federal law granting access to the procedure.
Most of the discrepancies come into play on the time frame.
About 73% of U.S. adults agree that abortion should be allowed within the first six weeks of pregnancy, but after 15 weeks, that share drops to 51%. The majority of Americans in states with tight abortion restrictions still think it should be legal at least up to six weeks.
Texas abortion ban may have contributed to births of nearly 10K babies
Senate Bill 8, also known as the Heartbeat Act, bans abortions after cardiac activity in a fetus can be detected.
Regardless of party, most of both Republicans and Democrats believe a person has the right to an abortion in certain circumstances, including when a pregnant person’s life is in danger, the person became pregnant through rape or incest, or if the child would have a serious life-threatening illness.
Abortion is currently banned at all stages of pregnancy in a total of 14 states. Most of the states are in the South and have varying exceptions.
