8 in 10, including two-thirds of Republicans, agreed that the government shouldn’t be involved in how a woman manages abortion issues.
Overall attitudes about the legality of abortion remain largely unchanged since Roe v. Wade was overturned: A 15-week nationwide ban on the procedure isn’t resonating much beyond the Republican base, with 58% of the public opposed.
For example, the GOP has been pushing a 15-week national ban by pointing to Gallup numbers showing that support for abortion rights drops after the first trimester—from 69% to 37%. But what Republicans and the anti-abortion movement don’t like to talk about is that support for abortion after the first trimester has jumped by nearly 10 points in the last few years:
In 2018, only 28% of Americans supported abortion in the second trimester—now 37% do. And while 13% of voters in 2018 supported abortion in the third trimester, now 22% do.
Those numbers only get more stark when you look at American women and young people: 25% of women and 33% of 18-34 years old believe abortion should be legal throughout pregnancy.
We saw similar support in a poll from PerryUndem: When voters were given the choice between a ballot measure that included a ‘viability’ restriction and one that didn’t, respondents were 15 percentage points more likely to choose the measure without the viability standard.
Tresa Undem, a co-founder of PerryUndem, said that while even five years ago people supported a viability mandate, today, “People are saying, ‘I don’t want the government involved in this at all.’”
…
When you ask Americans about abortion this way, you get more telling answers: An ABC News/Washington Post poll in May, for example, showed that 78% of Americans believe the decision whether to have an abortion should be left to a woman and her doctor.
Still, regardless of how they were asked, Americans supported abortion rights again and again in 2023, in poll after poll. In November, a poll from The Wall Street Journal found that 55% of voters want abortion legal “for any reason.” (That includes one third of Republicans—more on this in a moment.) Also this year, Pew found that 62% of Americans 30-49 years old believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, and that 73% of 18-29 year olds think the same.
As you can see—the trend among young people is really, really promising. In fact, Harvard University’s Institute of Politics found that young people 18-29 years old are twice as likely to describe themselves as ‘pro-choice’ than as ‘pro-life.’
To put it all simply: Americans are starting to understand that pregnancy is too complicated to legislate, and the rising generation knows this better than anyone.
Oh, except Republicans in office, who want to impose draconian things on women
New legislation proposed in Alabama would make it illegal to help someone under 18 years-old obtain an abortion. The bill joins the ranks of ‘abortion trafficking’ legislation across the country: Bills are advancing in Tennessee, Mississippi and Oklahoma; Idaho passed a law that’s currently blocked.
But Alabama being Alabama, HB378 goes even further than other Republican legislation. In addition to criminalizing anyone who “harbors or transports” a minor for the purpose of getting an abortion, the bill would also make it illegal to “aid and abet” a teen in getting care. This is important.
Feminists (including me!) have been pointing out that these so-called anti-trafficking laws are written so broadly that they could criminalize lending a teen gas money or giving someone the url to a clinic. In fact, that’s why Idaho’s law was blocked—a judge found it violated the First Amendment.
Louisiana Republicans
Speaking of the war on birth control: this news out of Louisiana shouldn’t be shocking, but JFC. A bill to protect contraception has been stalled because Louisiana Right to Life doesn’t like it. Seriously.
House Bill 395 is paused while the anti-abortion group mulls their position. As you know, groups like Louisiana Right to Life hold an inordinate amount of power in certain states, essentially dictating legislation. (This ProPublica piece is terrific in explaining how that happens.)
As I’ve flagged a million times over, conservatives are trying to falsely define certain kinds of contraception—like IUDs and the morning-after pill—as abortions. So you won’t be surprised to find out that in debates about the bill, certain Louisiana Republicans raised concerns about…IUDs and the morning-after pill.
