CNN
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Nearly two years after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Americans remain broadly opposed to the decision, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. But in the midst of a presidential campaign in which major candidates offer vastly different approaches to the issue, the study finds that the country is not united on how best to handle abortion laws.
The country’s widespread opposition to a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that found women do not have a federal constitutional right to abortion is similar to widespread opposition to taking federal action to protect abortion access. It doesn’t lead to support. About half (49%) of U.S. adults want federal politicians to work to regulate access to abortion nationwide, while 37% say abortion laws should be left up to the states and 14% We are calling for nationwide regulation.
About two-thirds (65%) disapprove of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Medical Institution, while 34% approve, a figure that has remained unchanged for nearly two years since the decision, according to CNN. Polls show virtually no change. Those who strongly oppose this decision continue to outnumber those who strongly approve by a margin of more than two to one.
A majority of 69% who oppose overturning Roe (including 82% who strongly oppose it) say federal politicians should try to pass legislation that guarantees access to abortion nationwide. A majority of those who support the ruling say federal politicians should not take action on the issue, with 59% saying abortion laws should be left to the states and 29% saying abortion laws nationwide should be left to the states. is in favor of further restricting access. The new national restrictions are supported by only about a quarter of Republicans, white evangelical Christians, and people who describe themselves as conservative.
The poll follows two years of largely state-level skirmishes over abortion laws following the ouster of President Roe, a political battle that has had tangible consequences for residents’ access to abortion in those states. It was done after. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled last month to reinstate the state’s Civil War-era abortion ban, which the state House of Representatives voted to repeal last week.
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Overall, 45% of Americans say their state’s laws governing abortion are about right now, the same as they were a year ago, while 37% say they are too restrictive and 17% say they are too permissive.
In states where abortion is currently legal between six and 18 weeks of pregnancy, the percentage of people who think their state’s abortion laws are too restrictive rises to 43%. The number rises to 52% in states where it is prohibited. Among those who do not support overturning Roe, about two-thirds (64%) in states with pregnancy restrictions and about three-quarters (74%) in states with abortion bans say state laws restrict I feel it’s too accurate.
Abortion policy has also emerged as an issue in the election. President Joe Biden has made support for abortion rights a focus of his presidential campaign. His Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, recently refused to veto a federal ban on abortion in an interview with Time, saying abortion regulation should be left up to individual states, and that the Republican-led It has distanced itself from pushing for a national ban. He alternatively said whether he supports states prosecuting women who seek abortions, reiterating that the decision is up to the states.
While polls show clear public agreement for the decision to overturn Roe, there are fewer precise answers about what role the fight over abortion policy could play in voters’ decisions this year. Not obtained. Laws on this issue currently vary widely from state to state, with abortion being a direct ballot item in some states and not in others. Florida, Maryland and New York all plan to vote on bills to establish new protections for abortion, while 10 other states are currently adding abortion-related measures to their November ballots. We are considering this.
About a quarter (24%) of registered voters say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion, and 55% consider a candidate’s position on abortion a number of important factors when voting. They answered that they would consider it as one of the factors. % said they do not think abortion is a big problem.
The proportion who say they only support politicians who agree on abortion is down from 31% of registered voters who said the same in July 2023. This decline is primarily due to voters supporting the decision to overturn Roe, suggesting that: The motivational advantage on this issue lies with supporters of abortion rights. Last summer, voters who disapproved of Dobbs’ decision were four points more likely to say they viewed the issue as a litmus test than voters who approved, 32% versus 28%. The gap has now widened to 10 points, 27% to 17%.
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How will that factor into voters’ initial decisions about the 2024 presidential candidates? Those who register to disapprove of Dobbs’ decisions and say they will only vote for candidates who think like them? Among voters, 81% say they currently support Mr. Biden over Mr. Trump, and 14% say they currently support Mr. Trump. Among those who do not support Dobbs but say it is just one of many issues that are important to them, 6 in 10 support Mr. Biden and 32% support Mr. Trump. I support it.
Among registered voters who oppose overturning Roe and do not currently support Biden, 15% say they would consider voting for him; That’s slightly higher than the 9% of all non-Biden supporters who said so. He re-elects the president.
The poll shows that Biden’s approval rating for abortion policy among adults overall is 42%, about the same level as his overall approval rating for his job, but that a majority of Americans want to protect abortion access (62%). is supported nationwide.
A majority of Americans (58%) believe that if re-elected this year, Biden will work to pass national legislation to ensure access to abortion, while 29% say he will leave abortion laws up to individual states; 13% said they would work on enacting it. National laws restricting abortion. By contrast, a 54% majority believe that if President Trump wins the election, he will leave abortion laws up to the states, 34% expect President Trump to work toward restricting abortion nationwide, and 12% expects President Trump to work to ensure access to abortion.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults are 36 percentage points more likely than Republican-leaning adults to expect Trump to tackle abortion restrictions nationwide (53% vs. 17%), while expectations for Biden vary by partisan. There is almost no division between them.
In an earlier release of the poll, 42% of registered voters said abortion was extremely important in voting for president this year, below the majority who said the same about protecting the economy and democracy. However, the issue was more important to self-described liberals (63%), female independents (59%), and male and female Democrats (52% each), with all of these groups seeing a higher turnout for Biden. likely to be the focus of .
Nationally, nearly one-third (32%) of Americans now say they believe a woman’s right to contraception is a threatened right that is likely to be overturned, and by 2022 That’s up from 23% who believed their rights were under threat in May. Women’s chances are 10 points higher than men’s. They said they saw their right to contraception being threatened.
The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS between April 18 and 23 among a random sample of 1,212 adults nationwide drawn from a probability-based panel of 967 registered voters. The survey was conducted online or over the phone with a live interviewer. Results among the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points, and results among registered voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
CNN’s Jennifer Asiesta and Ed Wu contributed to this report.
