Two-thirds of the public do not want to see the Supreme Court overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal in the U.S., according to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The Kaiser Family Foundation asked questions to voters as part of its June tracking poll just ahead of Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing his retirement from the Supreme Court. Anti-abortion groups are hailing the retirement as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to overturn major abortion rights rulings and possibly even Roe.
Kennedy was the deciding vote on major abortion rights rulings for decades, including the pivotal 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey that upheld Roe and said a state couldn’t create an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion. President Trump has vowed to appoint a justice who would oppose abortion rights, and his administration has worked to limit access to abortion.
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The poll found that 29 percent of respondents support the repeal of Roe, which would leave the legalization of abortion up to states. Fifty-three percent of Republicans support overturning the ruling, while 81 percent of Democrats and 73 percent of independents would not. The support for Roe v. Wade was slightly higher among women, at 68 percent, than among men, at 65 percent.
Seventy-four percent of women who are of reproductive age support keeping Roe in place.
About a quarter reported that they thought it was “too easy” for women to have an abortion, while one in five said it was “too difficult” and a third said it was “about right.” The poll did not ask respondents to specify how many weeks into a pregnancy they thought abortion should be legal.
Overall, 42 percent of voters said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights, while 29 percent said they would be more likely to support a candidate who favors restrictions on the procedure. The percentages varied by political affiliation, with 72 percent of Democrats being more likely to support a candidate who favors abortion access and 58 percent of Republican voters saying they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports restrictions on abortion.
The poll was conducted over the phone June 11-20 among 1,492 adults.
