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KFF Poll: Majority of Americans Say Recent State Abortion Regulations
Are Intended to Reduce Access
New KFF
Poll Finds Significant Knowledge Gap About Abortion Among the Public
Despite
Shifting Abortion Policy Landscape, Reproductive Health Issues Are Not a Top
Priority for Democrats in 2020
The
latest KFF poll finds most Americans (67%) think recent
state-level abortion restrictions are designed to make access to abortion
more difficult, rather than protect women’s health and safety. These
state-level abortion restrictions have become more common in the last several
years – with lawmakers arguing that these laws are intended to protect
women’s health and safety.
Overall,
twice as many think recent state actions are generally designed to make it
more difficult for women to access abortion (67%) rather than protect the
health and safety of women (32%). Three-fourths of Democrats (77%) as well as
six in ten independents (61%) and Republicans (62%) say these state laws are
designed to make it more difficult for women to access abortions. The poll
also found the public overwhelmingly thinks that decisions about abortions
should be made by women in consultation with their doctors (79%) rather than
having lawmakers decide when abortions should be available and under what
conditions (20%).
Despite
knowing that these state actions are intended to reduce access to abortion,
the poll also found that many support some of these regulations, including
laws that require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby
hospitals (69%) and laws that prohibit abortions once cardiac activity is
detected (49%).
However,
opinions on many state-level abortion laws can change once people hear
counter-arguments. Support for admitting privilege requirements drops 17
percentage points to 52 percent after hearing that complications from
abortions are extremely rare and women who need hospital treatment following
a procedure can receive care whether or not the provider has admitting
privileges. Support for fetal heartbeat laws drops 11 percentage points to 38
percent after hearing that cardiac activity is usually detectable around six
weeks into pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant.
Nearly
five decades since the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, a
majority (69%) of the public do not want to see the Supreme Court overturn
the 1973 landmark case. While a majority of Republicans (57%) would like to
see Roe
overturned, larger majorities of Democrats (91%) and independents (70%) do
not want it overturned.
Few
(11%) think abortion should be illegal in all cases, with the remainder
saying abortion should be legal in all cases (27%), legal in most cases
(32%), or illegal in most cases (30%). Large majorities think abortion should
be legal if the patient’s life is endangered (82%), in cases of rape or
incest (80%), if the fetus is not expected to survive (75%), or if the fetus
is expected to have serious birth defects (71%). A smaller majority say
abortion should be legal for women who do not want to be pregnant (55%).
The
poll also finds there are significant knowledge gaps on abortion among the
public. A majority (69%) incorrectly think most abortions occur eight weeks
or later into a pregnancy and few (11%) are aware that less than 5% of
abortions occur more than 20 weeks into a pregnancy.
In
addition, only about one-fifth of adults (21%) and one-third of women between
the ages of 18 and 49 (36%) have ever heard of Mifepristone, or a medication
abortion.
Despite
an increase in state-level abortion regulations and ongoing court cases
regarding reproductive health care, these issues do not appear to be a
priority in the 2020 election for most voters – even among Democrats. Health
care generally is the top issue that Democrats want to hear discussed by the
2020 presidential candidates, with one-third calling it the most important
issue. Only six percent of Democrats cite reproductive health issues,
including birth control and abortion, as their chief concern.
METHODOLOGY
Designed
and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF, the poll was conducted
December 20-30, 2019 among a nationally representative probability-based
sample of 1,215 adults including an oversample of 351 women, 18-49 years old.
Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish online (1,100) and on the
phone (115). The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage
points for the full sample and 6 percentage points for women, 18-49. See
topline for margin of sampling error for other subgroups.
Filling
the need for trusted information on national health issues, the Kaiser Family Foundation is
a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020
KFF Poll: Majority of Americans Say Recent State Abortion Regulations Are Intended to Reduce Access
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