A majority of voters — 57% — say they want strict limits on when abortion should be legal, and 24% say abortion should be illegal except in the cases of rape, incest, or the life of the mother is at stake.
Only 11.6% of Americans believe abortion should be legal up until the moment of birth, including partial birth.
Those are some of the findings of a national poll on abortion conducted by A Convention of States Action, in partnership with The Trafalgar Group.
In the survey, 19.7% of voters say abortion should be illegal after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, and 30.8% of American voters believe that abortion should be legal in the first and second trimesters.
The survey found that voters' political affiliations matter when it comes to views on abortion. Independent voters believe that abortion should only be legal in certain circumstances. About one-third of these voters (33.8%) believe that abortion should be legal in the first and second trimesters, and 11.5% think abortion should be legal up until the moment of birth, including partial birth.
Republicans have a stricter view of abortion, with 81.5% believing that abortion should only be legal in specific circumstances: 35.7% say it should be illegal except in the case of rape, incest, or the life of the mother. Only 14% of Republican voters believe that abortion should be legal in the first and second trimesters, and 4.5% think abortion should be legal up until the moment of birth, including partial birth.
Among Democrats, 35.9% believe that abortion should only be legal in specific circumstances. Less than half of Democrat voters (45.3 %) believe that abortion should be legal in the first and second trimesters, and 18.8% think abortion should be legal up until the moment of birth, including partial birth.
"As these numbers show, American voters — including one-third of Democrats — have paid attention to the science of fetal development, and support a variety of restrictions on abortion," noted Mark Meckler, president of A Convention of States Action. Results were from surveys conducted May 6-8 of more than 1,000 likely 2022 election voters.