Because the Dobbs determination final yr, 12 states have handed near-total abortion bans.
A newly printed ballot demonstrates that almost all People assist abortion rights, at the same time as states throughout the nation proceed to introduce draconian restrictions on the process one yr because the U.S. Supreme Court docket dismantled federal abortion rights protections.
Since June of 2022, when the Court docket dominated in Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group to overturn almost 50 years of precedent defending abortion rights, Republican-led states have handed a range of restrictions on abortion, together with strict deadlines based mostly on what number of weeks an individual has been pregnant, travel restrictions for those seeking to go elsewhere for the procedure and bans on the use of abortion medication, which will be obtained by way of mail.
However despite right-wing efforts to curtail People’ bodily autonomy, an Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll performed on June 22-26 discovered that 64 p.c of People consider that abortion must be authorized in all or most instances. Simply 25 p.c stated it must be unlawful usually, whereas solely 10 p.c stated the process must be unlawful in all instances.
Regardless of simply 1 in 10 People backing full abortion bans, 12 states — representing over 21 percent of the U.S. population — have enacted near-total bans on abortion. In 5 of these states, authorized challenges have up to now briefly blocked the enforcement of these bans.
People by and huge assist laws to reinstate abortion rights protections on the federal stage. Sixty p.c consider Congress ought to cross an abortion invoice that protects entry to the process throughout the nation, an act that might override abortion legal guidelines on the state stage.
Most People know somebody personally who has had an abortion, with 56 percent saying so. That quantity is six factors decrease than what it was final yr, nevertheless, suggesting that it’s potential that individuals aren’t sharing as brazenly about their experiences within the wake of abortion legal guidelines that search to punish them or their suppliers.
One in ten Americans say they know somebody who has been unable to get an abortion or who has needed to journey a big distance in an effort to receive the process over the previous yr.
The difficulty of abortion will possible play a serious function in upcoming elections, together with in some races this yr and within the 2024 election, wherein quite a lot of congressional and state-level candidates will marketing campaign both for or towards abortion rights, and plenty of state’s ballots will embody initiatives to protect abortion. Based on an Economist/YouGov poll published this week, most voters consider the difficulty is a essential one, with 73 p.c saying it’s “essential” or “considerably necessary” and solely 26 p.c holding the alternative view.
