Sixty-four percent say abortion should be legal in all or most cases: poll

Almost two-thirds of Americans believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to a new poll taken about eight months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. 

The survey, released Thursday from the nonpartisan research organization Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), found that 64 percent of respondents believed abortion should be legal in at least most cases, while only 34 percent said it should be illegal in most or all cases. 

The number of respondents who mostly support allowing the procedure has continually increased in the poll since 2010, when 55 percent of respondents said they supported it. The amount opposed to it has declined from 42 percent since then. 

Democrats overwhelmingly support abortion rights, with 87 percent across polls taken during 2022 supporting it. Republicans are significantly less supportive of it, but 36 percent last year were in favor of allowing abortions in at least most cases. 

Almost 7 in 10 independent voters said abortion should be at least mostly legal. 

Pollsters also found that a majority of people from most religions believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Unitarian Universalist, Jewish and Buddhist respondents were most supportive, with 85 percent, 79 percent and 78 percent of those groups, respectively, supporting allowing abortion in most or all cases. 

Members of the Church of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witness and white evangelical Protestant respondents were least supportive, with less than a third of any of those groups saying abortion should be legal in most or all cases. 

Pollsters found a comfortable majority support abortion rights across races and ethnicities, education levels, genders, sexual orientations and age groups. 

Only in seven states did less than a majority of respondents say abortion should be legal in most or all cases: South Dakota, Utah, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Mississippi and Tennessee. 

More than a dozen states have instituted strict bans on abortion to significantly reduce or nearly eliminate access since the Supreme Court issued its June ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The poll was conducted through interviews with 22,984 adults from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., between March 11 and Dec. 14. The margin of error for the national survey was plus or minus 0.8 points.