Despite the political tumult following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, Americans’ attitudes on abortion are roughly the same today as they were before that landmark decision, a new poll has found.
Sixty-nine percent of Americans support some legal limits on abortion and 60 percent oppose the taxpayer funding of abortion, according to a newly released Knights of Columbus—Marist College poll. The same poll conducted in January 2022, prior to the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, showed similar results. In that survey, 71 percent of Americans said they supported legal limits on abortion and 54 percent said they opposed the taxpayer funding of abortion.
“Nearly 7 in 10 Americans believe abortion should be limited,” Dr. Barbara L. Carvalho, Director of the Marist Poll, said in a statement Wednesday. “After a year of contentious public debate over the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, the results are comparable to the findings of a Knights of Columbus–Marist Poll conducted last January.”
As of January 2023, 25 percent of Americans said abortion should be available without restrictions in the first trimester — a 3 percent increase from January 2022. Twenty-six percent of respondents to the most recent poll said abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. That represents only a two percent drop from 2022, when it was 28 percent.
Between 2022 and 2023, the percentage of respondents who said abortion should be allowed only to save the life of the mother barely increased from 9 to 10 percent. However, 8 percent of 2023 respondents said that abortion should never be tolerated, down 4 percent from 2022. The percentage of respondents who believe a woman should be able to seek an abortion at any point in her pregnancy increased 4 points from 2022 to 2023.
Included in the 2023 poll is a trend line of Americans’ attitudes on abortion since October 2008. It confirms that people have liberalized on the issue over the last couple decades. While 84 percent of Americans in 2008 advocated for an abortion cap at three months of gestation or stricter limitations, that number has slimmed to 69 percent in January 2023.
Most Americans are still uncomfortable with subsidizing abortion nationally or internationally post-Roe. Sixty percent of Americans oppose or strongly oppose using tax dollars to pay for a woman’s abortion, compared to 54 percent in 2022.
Americans still overwhelmingly reject sending aid to foreign countries to finance their abortion services. The percentage of Americans who oppose or strongly oppose it increased from 73 percent to 78 percent between 2022 and 2023.
The 2023 poll asked some new questions that the 2022 poll did not, including on subjects like disability or sex-based abortions and pregnancy centers that don’t provide abortion. Sixty percent of respondents said they oppose or strongly oppose abortion in cases when the child will be born with Down Syndrome.
The vast majority of Americans also condemn sex-specific abortions in 2023. Ninety-eight percent of respondents, including Republicans, Democrats, independents, those who identify as pro-choice, and those who identify as pro-life, oppose or strongly oppose abortion on the basis of the child’s gender or sex.
After the wave of violence perpetrated against pregnancy centers following the Dobbs leak, 91 percent of Americans support or strongly support clinics that offer maternity care and resources as an alternative to abortion, according to the poll.
The survey of 1,025 adults, including 885 registered voters, was conducted January 6th through January 9th, 2023. The margin of error was adjusted for sample weights and increases for cross-tabulations.
Along political affiliation lines in 2023, most Republicans surveyed (42 percent) believe abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. Most Democrats surveyed (32 percent) believe abortion should be available at any point during the pregnancy and most independents surveyed (32 percent) believe abortion should be available without restrictions in the first trimester.
Last week, House Democrats almost unanimously voted down a bill that would require doctors to administer medical care to infants born alive after failed abortions. Some members characterized the legislation as extremist and dangerous, while others claimed that one provision, which instructed doctors to bring the baby to the hospital after treating it, could endanger some infants.