Nearly two-thirds of Americans want abortion access: Pew poll

Almost two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, most Americans still support abortion access.  

About 6 in 10 Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of 8,709 adults released Monday.  

The share of American adults who believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases has increased by 4 percentage points since 2021, according to Pew.  

The overwhelming majority — 85 percent — of people who identify as Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the survey.  

Meanwhile, there was “near unanimous support” among survey respondents who identified as liberal Democrats.  

Republicans and Republican-leaning survey respondents were far less likely to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, at just over 40 percent.

But there has been a years-long uptick in the number of Americans who support abortion in all or almost all cases, on both sides of the political aisle.  

In 2007, 63 percent of Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents and 39 percent of Republicans or Republican-leaning independents believed abortion should be legal in all or almost all cases.  

The survey notes that the number of Americans who believe abortion should be legal in all cases has remained consistent at around 25 percent, while 8 percent say it should be illegal in all cases.

And roughly two-thirds of Americans do have an absolutist view on abortion, with 38 percent saying it should be legal in most cases and 28 percent saying it should be illegal in most cases.  

More than half of Americans — 54 percent — say the statement “the decision about whether to have an abortion belongs solely to the pregnant woman” describes their views extremely or very well. Meanwhile, 19 percent say it describes their views somewhat well, and 26 percent say it does not describe their views well, according to the survey.  

About a third of Americans — 35 percent — say the statement “human life begins at conception, so an embryo is a person with rights” describes their views extremely or very well, while 45 percent say it does not describe their views well. But many Americans seem to believe in both statements.

Pew found that 32 percent of Americans say both statements about pregnant women being solely responsible for the decision to terminate a pregnancy and embryos’ rights describe their views at least somewhat well.  

Regardless of political party affiliation, about 6 in 10 Americans say getting an abortion where they live would be at least somewhat easy, while 4 in 10 say it would be difficult.