In September, Townhall covered how data from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which used to be affiliated with Planned Parenthood, claimed that abortions increased substantially at the beginning of 2023, months after the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. This, they claim, has occurred because women are traveling for abortions or taking abortion pills.
This week, a new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll at the University of Chicago found that 55 percent of Americans “say it should be possible for a pregnant woman to obtain a legal abortion if she wants it for any reason.” According to the write-up, this is at one of the highest levels on record since nonpartisan researchers began tracking it in the 1970s.
New results from a WSJ-NORC poll show Americans’ support for abortion access is at one of the highest levels on record. “Every woman has different experiences and health complications.” https://t.co/pvwYXecPBuhttps://t.co/pvwYXecPBu
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 20, 2023
Broken down by political party, 77 percent of Democrats said they will support abortion access for any reason. This is a jump from 52 percent in 2016. As for Republicans, one-third said that they will support abortion access for any reason.
The poll, conducted for the Journal by NORC at the University of Chicago, surveyed 1,163 registered voters from Oct. 19 through 24 (via WSJ):
Many voters have nuanced views, including backing restrictions later in pregnancy and exceptions for difficult circumstances, that they say aren’t well captured by current legislative proposals. Nearly nine in 10 poll respondents support abortion access in the event of rape or incest, or when a woman’s health is seriously endangered by the pregnancy.
In the survey, several Ohio voters spoke about the issue of abortion. As Townhall covered, Ohio recently passed a state amendment to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution (via WSJ):
Barbara Weigand, 80, a Democratic-leaning voter in Hartville, Ohio, struggled with how to vote on her state’s ballot measure.
She believes that women should be able to manage their own health and favored abortion access for most of her life. But since a religious awakening in her 60s, she now believes that God is in every human life. Typically she votes Democrat because she is aligned with the party’s stance on adding more gun laws and providing financial security for seniors. But the ballot measure wasn’t asking for her take on those issues.
“I ultimately voted against the issue because I couldn’t let God down,” she said.
WSJ noted that the partisan split on abortion emerged in the 1990s. In the poll, it found that 86 percent of respondents support abortion access in the event of rape or incest and 89 percent support it when the women’s health is “seriously endangered.”
Since Roe was overturned, pro-abortion groups have targeted states with pro-life laws. This month, pro-abortion supporters have launched a ballot initiative in Nebraska to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, similar to what recently occurred in Ohio.
“Nebraska’s law currently allows abortion throughout the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, but that isn’t enough for the abortion industry and activists who are trying to write second- and third-trimester abortions into our constitution. This amendment would allow for abortion until the moment of birth,” Nebraska Right to Life Executive Director Sandy Danek said in a statement. “This ballot measure is not pro-choice, it’s pro-abortion, and it does not reflect the values of Nebraskans.”
