Today, the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released the results of a poll of over 1,400 adults in mid-July. The findings contain good news for pro-lifers.
The results indicate that the percentage of adults who think abortion should be illegal in “all cases” or “most cases” increased by seven percentage points since June 2024. Overall, this AP/NORC poll reports the highest level of pro-life sentiment since the leak of the Dobbs decision in May 2022. This poll has received coverage from a number of media outlets including The Hill, The Guardian, and PBS.
Other survey questions also show an increase in pro-life sentiment. The survey asked respondents about whether “your state should allow someone to obtain a legal abortion” in each of four different circumstances. For each circumstance, support for legal abortion fell during the past year. Notably, the percentage of people who supported legal abortion if the woman “does not want to be pregnant for any reason” fell by five percentage points. Considering the media’s consistently negative coverage of pro-life laws, this gain in pro-life sentiment is welcome news.
This is the second major poll this summer to show an increase in pro-life sentiment. In June, Gallup released the results of its annual poll on sanctity-of-life issues. Gallup found gains in the percentage of people who identified as “pro-life” and the percentage of people who felt that abortion was “morally wrong.”
This new AP/NORC poll is further evidence that Ramesh Ponnuru’s insight was correct — that public backlash toward Dobbs is fading. Considering the success of many pro-life candidates in 2024 and the passing of a budget that defunded Planned Parenthood, pro-lifers have good reasons to be optimistic about the future.