Abortion rights support increases as some US states limit access: Reuters / Ipsos poll

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Americans are backing more abortion rights over the past year, even as a wave of Republican-controlled state governments have imposed new restrictions, according to US media. a Reuters / Ipsos poll released Sunday.

The poll found that 58% of US adults said abortion should be legal in most or all cases, compared to 50% who said so in a similar survey conducted in July 2018.

Although support was divided according to supporters, passions were higher among registered Democrats: 81% of them said that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 55% of registered Republicans said that it should be illegal in most cases.

This year, eight Republican-led states have adopted new restrictions on abortion, which activists say are aimed at getting the US Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade of 1973 who established the right of a woman to terminate her pregnancy.

Anti-abortion campaigners are counting on the new conservative 5-in-4 majority, after two nominations by Republican President Donald Trump, to tip the scales in their favor.

A large majority of Americans disagree with some of the most draconian anti-abortion measures of the year: Alabama law banning abortion in all cases, including for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, with the sole exception of women whose lives are in danger.

Eighty percent of respondents told Reuters / Ipsos that they supported abortion in case of rape or incest.

Other states, including Ohio and Georgia, have banned abortions in the absence of a medical emergency after six weeks of pregnancy or after the fetal heart rate has increased. could be detected, which can occur before a woman realizes that she is pregnant.

Public opinion is divided almost equally on whether abortion should be legal after detection of a heartbeat, the poll found.

The Reuters / Ipsos poll also found that 85% of Americans support abortion when the mother's life is at risk and 59% believe that abortion should be legal when there is evidence that the baby has physical or mental disabilities.

Fifty-eight percent of American adults said that abortion should not be legal when the fetus was over 20 weeks old, while 30% said it should be allowed.

"I think abortion is a very difficult and horrible thing, but I do not think the government can say if you should be able to do it – it's a very personal thing," said Steven. Hoelke, a survey respondent, a Republican retired aerospace engineer from Claremont, California. "It's difficult and I do not think it can be dictated from above."

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Trump's opposition to abortion has garnered support at his base, especially among many religious voters. The two dozen Democrats in the running to challenge it strongly supported the right to abortion.

The poll also found that most voters were not looking for candidates whose abortion was their main concern: only 9% of registered Republicans said they would prefer to vote for a candidate whose primary goal was to win. Prohibit abortion, while 11% of registered Democrats preferred one. the focus would be on the protection of abortion rights.

US voters generally view health care and the economy as the key issues in the election.

The Reuters / Ipsos survey was conducted online in English in the United States from May 22-23. It has collected responses from 1,008 people and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 6 percentage points.