Gallup’s latest poll ,released Wednesday, found a new high in the number of voters who say they will only back a candidate who agrees with their own personal opinion on abortion — another sign of the issue’s rising importance for voters.
While the number — 28 percent — was only 1 point higher than last year, it’s a new high for Gallup when asking the question, underscoring the roiling political tensions since the Supreme Court decision one year ago this week to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling.
Fifty-six percent of respondents said that abortion views do matter but are just one factor in selecting a candidate. That’s only a 2-point increase from the 2022 poll but significantly higher than poll averages before the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization changed abortion.
The Gallup poll also found a record low in the number of voters who say they don’t care about a candidate’s position on abortion — just 14 percent. In 2007, that figure was 23 percent.
Nearly two-thirds of the voters who say abortion is their most important issue say they support abortion rights, a significant increase from before 2022, where a majority of those who found it most important were those against abortion rights.
“The diminished pro-life segment of the electorate is less energized on the issue than they have been previously, indicating that the desire to see laws changed is more motivating to voters than wanting current laws maintained,” Gallup Director of Social Research Lydia Saad said.
Saad said that could explain failed ballot measures in multiple states last year to enshrine abortion bans in state constitutions in Kentucky, Kansas and other red states.
Abortion was seen as a critical issue in the 2022 midterms and may have helped Democrats hold on to their Senate majority. And though Democrats lost the House majority, they did not lose as many seats as predicted for a typical midterm election for the president’s party.
The 2022 poll was taken after a draft of the Dobbs decision leaked. The 2023 poll surveyed a random sample of 1,011 adults in May. It has a margin of error of 4 percent.