Seven in 10 Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases

A recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research revealed that a solid majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban, while an increasing number support access to abortions for any reason.

These findings are a sharp contrast from a similar study conducted in 2021, a year before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, in which only about half of the public thought legal abortion should be available for any reason.

This time around, the poll revealed that approximately seven in 10 Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a slight increase from last year, while about 3 in 10 think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. 6 in 10 Americans believe their state should generally allow legal abortions for any reason.

Furthermore, Americans overwhelmingly reject national abortion bans and restrictions. Approximately 8 in 10 Americans oppose Congress passing a federal law banning abortion. Additionally, three-quarters reject a federal law banning abortion at six weeks, and 6 in 10 oppose a federal law banning abortion at 15 weeks.

At the moment, full bans (with limited exceptions) are in effect in 14 GOP-led states and three other states prohibit abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy—often before women realize they are pregnant.

Views on abortion, however, remain nuanced and sometimes contradictory. While half of those who support a woman's right to choose an abortion for any reason also believe their state should not allow abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy, a quarter believe abortion should be prohibited after 15 weeks.

Despite these variations, a significant majority—more than 8 in 10 Americans—maintain that abortion should be legal in extreme circumstances. These include situations where a patient's life is endangered by continuing the pregnancy, pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, or when a fetal anomaly would prevent the child from surviving outside the womb.

As AP reports, likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has refrained from endorsing a nationwide abortion ban, asserting that the issue should be decided at the state level.