WSJ Poll Finds Support for Abortion Access Nearly at Record High

Americans’ support for abortion access has risen close to an all-time high since nonpartisan researchers began tracking the issue in the 1970s, according to a new poll.

The Wall Street Journal and NORC at the University of Chicago found in a survey released this week that 55% of Americans think a pregnant woman should be able to legally obtain an abortion for any reason. The survey notes that this is 18 percentage points higher than in 1977, the earliest available data.

The poll found that about three-quarters of Democrats, 77%, support abortion access for any reason, an increase from 52% in 2016. About one-third of Republicans support abortion access for any reason, though no exact number was provided.

The poll also found that nearly nine in 10 respondents said that abortion should be legal in the case of a pregnancy that is the result of rape or incest, or when a woman’s life is in danger.

“For many Americans, this is an issue that has nuance,” Jocelyn Kiley, Pew Research Center’s associate director of U.S. politics research, told the Journal.

The poll was conducted at the end of October, about four months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion.

The NORC conducted the survey on behalf of the Journal, polling 1,163 registered voters across the country on October 19-24, with a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.