This fall, the Supreme Court will hear a case that will decide whether U.S. Constitution prohibits the state of Mississippi from limiting legal abortion for any reason to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Mississippi law includes exceptions for later abortions if the pregnancy threatens the mother’s physical health or when the child suffers from a condition that is “incompatible with life outside the womb.”
Advocates of an unlimited right to abortion are trying to portray the Mississippi law as extreme, but a new poll released by the Associated Press on Friday shows that for every American who believes that second-trimester abortions should be legal, there are two Americans who believe second-trimester abortions should be illegal.
The poll finds that 65 percent of Americans say that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases in the second trimester (which begins 13 weeks into pregnancy), while 34 percent say abortion in the second trimester should be legal in all or most cases. Gallup polling from 2018 found that just 28 percent of Americas say abortion should be legal in all or most cases in the second trimester.
The new AP poll also finds that 80 percent of Americans say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases in the third-trimester, while 38 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases in the first trimester.
The United States is one of just seven countries in the world that allows elective abortions later than 20 weeks into pregnancy.