New polling from frequent partners YouGov and The Economist finds that majorities across a large number of American population groups support an establishment by Congress of a national right to abortion. That doesn’t entail allowances for abortion in any scenario but just a general baseline allowing access to the procedure in many circumstances… roughly in line with what Roe v. Wade provided until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it in 2022.
The only groups identified by YouGov in which support for a national right to abortion didn’t reach a majority were respondents: aged 65 and up, intending to vote for Trump this year, conservative in their ideology, and associated with the Republican Party. Among all registered voters nationally, meanwhile, 54 percent supported such a nationally established right, while only 38 percent opposed the prospect. Among all respondents, the margin was larger, with 55 percent backing a national right to an abortion and 34 percent opposing it.
The nation’s highest court overturning Roe v. Wade opened up the opportunity for legislators at both the state and national levels to pursue their own agendas on abortion access, though much of the movement has been from state officials. Republicans across positions of state power have pursued sweeping abortion restrictions, while some Democrats in similar roles have pursued the opposite, as have voters in some states, advancing state Constitutional amendments that would put new protections for the care into place.
Donald Trump is currently trying to do… something with his public stance on abortion, trying to make a big deal out of wanting the issue left to individual states. By default, that would seem to imply support for major restrictions, some of which haven’t even included exceptions for situations of rape and incest, threatening to force victims in these circumstances to continue with a pregnancy.
