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Chart of the day: Support for abortion is rising

According to a new Wall Street Journal poll, the public has become more supportive of abortion since the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs ruling. Some groups have become way more supportive:

Abortion is a far more motivating issue for Democrats than Republicans. More than half of all voters said the Dobbs ruling made it more likely they'd vote in November, and of that, 77% were Democrats compared to only 8% who were Republicans.

Democrats were also more trusted to handle abortion policy, 48% to 27%. And big majorities opposed most bans on abortion:

  • 62% opposed an abortion ban at 6 weeks of pregnancy that only included an exception for the health of the mother
  • 57% opposed a ban at 15 weeks with an exception only for the health of the mother
  • 77% opposed banning women who live in states where abortion is illegal from traveling to other states to get an abortion.
  • 81% were against banning all abortions.

If Democrats can keep up this level of energy for another couple of months, it could make a serious dent in the current Republican lead. Just remember: The midterms aren't over until the pissed-off women sing.

70 thoughts on “Chart of the day: Support for abortion is rising

  1. Justin

    I’m a middle aged guy so this is not my issue. The ladies need to express their preference. Since so many women are religious fanatics I’m not sure they will turn out for abortion. Anyway… I always vote for democrats. And not because of abortion.

    I’m actually glad the courts did their thing on Roe. The republican project has consequences. Now it’s time to come to come to grips with it.

  2. quickquestion

    I'm completely disgusted by abortion. I can't say enough how much I hope and pray the practice ends and is seen as a black mark for the nation.

    Having said that, legislating it out of existence will work as well as gun control. The technology is out there and Pandora's Box is open.

    Public sentiment may (in the future) slow/stop abortions, but laws won't...

    Totally understand that I will almost universally be disagreed with on this site. That's fine. I think it's a baby, you don't. Simple as...

    1. Justin

      Yeah… lots of young women who don’t care get abortions as birth control. They would be awful mothers anyway. I don’t care what these awful women do. They would only bring freaks and criminals into the world.

      1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        The woman who has had at least a half-dozen abortions is the new Welfare Queen. (Who was real, but not Black, as Reagan averred. Was Italian, Puerto Rican, or Indigenous, a regular Papist slut like Maria in West Side Story.)

        1. Justin

          Let us admit that most (95% in this analysis) abortions are not due to rape, incest or to save the life of the woman. Can we agree on this?

          Don’t be afraid to advocate for these women who just find it… inconvenient to have a kid.

          1. Bardi

            "…inconvenient to have a kid."

            You mean the woman who thought the man was her mate, then realized after she got pregnant that he was a jerk? You want her to raise, yet, another jerk?

          2. mudwall jackson

            so the woman who has an ectopic pregnancy or is carrying a nonviable fetus at the risk of her life should be tossed on the scrapheap, her right to life disregarded for the sake of some soulless politicians? the implications of abortion bans, even with with so-called protections for the life of the mother, extend far beyond abortion itself. there is there fear of prosecution for women who have miscarriages, the inability of women to receive certain live-saving drugs because those drugs can be used to induce abortions. the fear or doctors to use medical judgment to treat patients because some zealous prosecutor might see it as a felony.

      2. ocldayoe

        First off beliefs are not facts. I have worked in women's health care for 40+ years. The number of women who I have cared for who have had more than one or two abortions is exceedingly rare. If the number of pregnancies you carried to term made you a great mom, we wouldn't have Josh Dugger would we?

      3. lawnorder

        That stereotype is almost non-existent. There are a sizeable number of young women who think of themselves as virgins and so in no need of birth control who yield to temptation and find themselves pregnant as a result. Of women who seek abortion who used no birth control, those "virgins" are the majority. However, after one abortion, almost all of them start using birth control.

        Having an abortion, even a medication abortion, is not fun. I've never met, or even heard of, a woman who has had an abortion who thinks another one is a good idea. Unwanted pregnancies are almost always the result of birth control failure, not lack of birth control.

          1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

            Clarence is a big fan of creampie finishes in his DVD & streaming collection.

            Would you deny him his artistic license?... Sounds like an infringement on his first amendment rights.

  3. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    The question remains: does car sauce being expensive carry more weight than amniotic fluid being required to be carried up to & around 40 weeks?

    1. Justin

      We’re all smart enough to realize that most abortions are just follow up on failed birth control.

      96.50% of all abortions are therefore performed for social or economic reasons.

      Which is fine with me.

        1. Justin

          The reasons most frequently cited were that having a child would interfere with a woman's education, work or ability to care for dependents (74%); that she could not afford a baby now (73%); and that she did not want to be a single mother or was having relationship problems (48%). Nearly four in 10 women said they had completed their childbearing, and almost one-third were not ready to have a child. Fewer than 1% said their parents' or partners' desire for them to have an abortion was the most important reason. Younger women often reported that they were unprepared for the transition to motherhood, while older women regularly cited their responsibility to dependents.

          I mean really… do you even read the links you use in rebuttal?

          Inconvenient. Let’s not be shy about it. These women ought not be mothers.

          Not any mention of rape, incest, or danger.

          It’s ok. These women are unfit mothers anyway. We’re all better off if they don’t give birth to psychopaths.

          1. Rattus Norvegicus

            Quite frankly STFU. Who are you to judge their motivations? From reading the paper at the Guttmacher link it would seem that they are probably good mothers since the overwhelming reason seems to be factors related to caring for dependents they already have.

            1. Salamander

              Like + 25.

              Seems as if there are lots of dudes "weighing in." If you're a man and you are a forced-birther, then you need to stop having sex altogether, or just get yourself neutered. Very few of these women would be pregnant if not for y'all.

          2. Austin

            I’m telling y’all, Justin is an amoral monster troll. You should never engage with him, because almost all of his views are repugnant and ignorant, and all engaging with him will do is drag you into the mud with him.

  4. Vog46

    It's a failure of the republican party that is causing support for abortion to increase

    They simply pushed it too far by FORCING child birth for victims of rape and incest. THIS in an of itself makes many middle of the issue voters think that we should go back to the time prior to Dobbs because the republicans took it too far.

    Rape and incest and to protect the life of the mother.
    Make contraceptives available to all including under ages boys and girls. THIS is what will get the Christo-fascists MORE upset because they're afraid that their "pure" offspring will jump at the chance to have sex if they don;t worry about the consequences - because they know, deep down that their Christian values are not being instilled in their offspring which is a direct reflection upon THEM as parents.
    Its a paradox. They don't want to admit their kids are "screwing around". They also don't want their children to be bearing a child. They are hoping Dobbs puts the fear of God into their kids - because nothing else will............

    1. sfbay1949

      Why not tell them to just say no. It worked so well when Nancy Reagan said it.

      The men here opining about abortion for or against, just shut up. It's not up to you. This is a woman's issue so butt out.

      1. ProgressOne

        Sorry, democracy does not work that way. All voters get a say in the major moral issues of the day. Catholics believe it is murder to kill an "unborn child". So male Catholics are just supposed to shut up about this? The pope should shut up too?

        Good luck censoring men and blocking their votes.

        1. HokieAnnie

          No it doesn't work that way. We didn't hold a vote on Loving v. Virginia afterwards. We told the bigots to STFU. So now the guys and the folks who think Pope Francis is too liberal need to STFU.

        2. Vog46

          Progress
          I get a little angst when someone uses the term morals because those very morals can vary from person to person. "Morals" are very highly affected by how we are raised. Besides parents, schools and churches have influence over our morals.

          One thing that really upsets me about this attack on abortion is this,
          Women believe it is a right to choose - regardless of how the partner feels and they NEED a partner in this situation. Yes, woman do carry the fetus but it seems almost a tyrannical decision that women WANT to make ON THEIR OWN. Now that assumes the male wants to have input into this decision which many don't.
          It is a tough decision for the woman to make - of that there is no doubt and it involves not only a partner but another "life form" that eventually would turn out to be another human being.

          "Life" is precious but what I find startling is growing disdain for life itself. And we are extremely hypocritical about it.
          We DO NOT WANT a gun registry because we don't want ANYONE to know what we have that could kill someone else
          But we damned sure want to make sure we KNOW the woman is pregnant so we can insure we protect that innocent being.

          WE are imposing a set of standards that is meshed with our own sense of morality on a specific portion of the population without regard for her input - or the fathers - all while making exception to HIPPA for this ONE medical condition.
          Yet contraception IS available for both sexes to use (for the most part).

          I did read the linked article and saw nothing as to the % of male versus female and how that broke down - but it is clear that the majority favor the choice - a limited choice - but a choice based upon a time standard. The mother to be's health was also important and exceptions for rape and incest has always been strongly supported.

          So the father to be can conceal carry w/o the mom to be knowing and he could shoot both the mom and the fetus. Imposing HIS WILL (and lack of morals) on her.
          But we REQUIRE her to disclose SHE IS CARRYING?

          Interesting. This old male, Catholic gun owner and Veteran finds this whole argument ludicrous. Protect the practice of abortion

          But Ken Shultz said it best down below:
          "I'm male and I'm strongly in favor of a broad right to privacy, which applies to everyone"

      2. mudwall jackson

        i'm male. i'm not for, i'm not against. i'm for the right of women to choose what's best for them. second, dobbs has implications that go beyond abortion. if you have a problem with me exercising my first amendment right to free speech, tough. if you have a problem with me exercising my right to vote for pro-choice candidates, tough.

    2. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      I think people like Alito, Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett, & Thomas are falling into the trap of Pauline Kael's infamous quote about Nixon in 72: the four truest sedevacantists in the Supremes have only been around ardent antiabortionists so long that they can't conceive of anyone being in favor of leaving that medical procedure an option.

      Roberts, who just went along to go along, figures the American people are as spineless as him & will aquiesce for the sake of comity. (At least he was right about us acquiescing to no resolution to the preliminary opinion leak. I guess Chief Supreme discovered what we already knew -- it was a right-wing leak.)

      Gorsuch, as a practicing Episcopalian, has no excuse for this shit.

  5. CaliforniaDreaming

    Some things still blow me away,

    "77% opposed banning women who live in states where abortion is illegal from traveling to other states to get an abortion."

    So, 23% thought, "yep, you got pregnant, no more traveling for you". Can't see you dying mother in another state, might abort! Can travel for medical reasons, might abort! Can't do business in another state, might abort!

    Best thing these geniuses ever did was not think any of this through. Maybe they aren't up to that job?

    1. Austin

      I mean there are still people living in this country who believe women should spend 90% of their time at home, preparing dinner, taking care of the kids and keeping the house tidy, like in all those 50s-60s sitcoms.

      It’s not shocking that the people who believe a woman’s place is in the home also believe women shouldn’t have the freedom to travel interstate.

      1. Spadesofgrey

        Well, except that was a Hollywood fiction as much as women beating up men movies they got today. Emasculation is what those kind of men are.

  6. kahner

    It certainly would be ironic if conservatives' victory after a decades long campaign to ban abortion was what turned the country against them and broke the back of the GOP in national electoral politics.

    1. bebopman

      Read an article recently about Ireland. My super simplified summary: When the Church, religious nuts and hard conservatives (including monetary and physical support from American religious nuts) pushed anti-abortion views from just their religion to include the entire country, they set up the eventual vote that established abortion rights for the entire country, including the religious nuts. The nuts would have been better off keeping their insulting views of women to themselves and leaving everyone else alone. ….. It’s possible the same thing is about to happen in the U.S.

      1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        Did Eric Robert Rudolph plant & explode bombs for nothing? Was Tiller the Babykiller assassinated only to see his infanticist side win?

  7. hwyl

    For a long time there is no person there, no consciousness - abortions or morning after pills are just routine and personal medical decisions. The situation will be more complicated only much later. Decades of propaganda and still quite misogynistic general culture have made it sound somehow icky and deeply unpleasant, even if not "murder" for most people. But in reality they are just routine personal medical decisions.

    The concequences of atavistic and superstitious thinking to the contrary are coming horribly apparent in many states. Basically it's back to burning witches level of political and moral thinking - with same hatred of women and their sexual and physical autonomy.

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      I can only hope the November 2022 midterm will be Americans exercising Plan B on Mitch Mc Connell, Qevin Mq Qarthy, & the bois (& gurls -- can't leave out Lauren GEDbert, Marsha Blackburn, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, et. al.).

  8. KJK

    People need to be reminded that the horrors that are now being hoisted upon women and their families in 1/2 of the states are a direct consequence of the Republicans who voted for these laws and the Supreme Court of Gilead who unleased these medieval GOP laws upon us. Now OB/GYN doctors in these states have their lawyers on speed dial to navigate the legal risks before treating (or refusing to treat) their patients.

    Democrats running for any office need to light up their opponents with Roe V Wade and Trump 24/7. If the forced birthers were defeated in deep red, bible thumping Kansas, it will clearly be a winner in 2022 (and hopefully 2024).

  9. Spadesofgrey

    Lets remember women before Christ were expected to work the land, give head by the age of 12 and basically work communally to take care of the tribe. They were a throw away commodity. Infanticide was common with angry men not wanting another female. The industrial revolution turned it upside down.

    Jesus Christ is the father of feminism.

  10. cld

    Good news for corruption!

    Sarah Palin lost only because conservatives refused to use the rank choice ballot and marked only one name, her or one of the other crank candidates, without adding a second choice,

    https://www.rawstory.com/five-takeaway-lessons-from-alaskas-first-ranked-choice-election/

    if those who'd voted for one of the fringier candidates had listed her as the second choice those votes would have gone to her after the first name was eliminated but instead those ballots were set aside.

    She could have won if wingnuts weren't engaging in the performative stupidity they think is resistance at every turn.

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      Alaska GQP voters did a Maine.

      This is the kind of brain dead, self-defeating shit I expect from Elliott Cutler voters.

    2. rick_jones

      Will they make than same mistake in November? Seems unlikely. And as it was, more of those who did bark a second went to the other GOP candidate. Thus it was a rather close thing.
      As it happens, for at least a while, Palin was saying not to mark a second. Palin, meet petard.

    3. rick_jones

      Republican congressional candidate Nick Begich reprimanded his rival, Sarah Palin, for Democrats’ Wednesday win in Alaska’s special election for its at-large seat, saying she cost the party by instructing “supporters not to rank candidates” in the state’s ranked-choice voting system.

      As a result of the ranked-choice-voting system, Begich was eliminated after the first round after coming in third place with 28.52 percent. His 53,756 votes were then divided up between Palin and Peltola, depending on how the voters chose to rank the other candidates. After the ballots were tabulated following Begich’s elimination, Peltola received 15,445 extra votes, while Palin got 27,042. Over 11,200 people only voted for Begich, without ranking anyone as their second-place candidate.

      That last group ultimately proved decisive, as Peltola ultimately prevailed over Palin by a margin of just 5,219 votes (91,206-85,987.)

      https://news.yahoo.com/sarah-palin-instructed-supporters-not-152202621.html

  11. jvoe

    Realizing that 35% of the population consider you to be unable to make your own decisions about your health and life---That's the type of energy that does not 'wane'.

  12. Salamander

    The forced-birthers yammer on and on and on and ON about "life", but the mass of cells inside that female-type person has no soul. It won't receive one until it emerges into the air and takes hizzer first breath.

    Then s/he can be considered a "person."

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      I think it's poetic that Dobbs, which decided every zygote is sacred, was a case from Jackson, MS, where those same zygote, once gestated & delivered, will not be safe to drink the water.

    2. Justin

      Y’all are really just content to pretend…

      I’m unwilling to make infanticide a crime. Kill them up to 2 or 3 years after “birth” if it serves your interests. Oh look….

      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/landon-parrot-intentionally-left-child-hot-car-charged-murder-ohio-police/

      That’s not really murder, is it? The boy knew he couldn’t properly care for the fetus. And so he did that thing.

      Such a moral quandary. Zygote. embryo. Fetus. Child… so hard to find the right word. I’m at a loss really. I don’t believe in gods or souls. But… what is life? The chicken I had for dinner? The raccoon I hit with my car? The deer my friend shot?

      The Russian soldiers I wish killed? Wow. I can’t…

      Maybe your moral clarity is better.

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