A new survey out yesterday from Rasmussen Reports has found that a plurality of Americans supports the Texas Heartbeat Act.
The poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters across the country on September 5 and September 6 and found that 46 percent of respondents said they support the Texas law. Forty-three percent, meanwhile, oppose the law, while 11 percent remain undecided on the question.
In 2019, when a number of states passed heartbeat bills that, like the law in Texas, protected unborn children after a heartbeat could be detected, some polling suggested that a slim majority of Americans was supportive of such laws — especially after learning that a heartbeat could be detected as early as six weeks’ gestation.
Rasmussen Reports also found that a plurality of Americans (46 percent) would rather have laws governing abortion determined by state governments than the federal government. Plurality support for state governments setting abortion policy held consistent across all age demographics, among both men and women, and among both white and black respondents. About a third of respondents said they’d prefer the federal government to decide.