A brand new survey from KFF, a well being coverage analysis nonprofit, finds that bans are broadly unpopular, and most ladies help nationwide abortion protections.
Initially revealed by The nineteenth
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Most girls between the ages of 18 and 49 help a nationwide proper to abortion, oppose a nationwide ban on the process, and don’t consider abortion rights ought to be left as much as particular person states, in keeping with a new survey from KFF, a nonprofit well being coverage analysis, polling, and information group.
Majorities of Democratic and unbiased ladies oppose restrictions and help a regulation enshrining a nationwide abortion proper, the ballot discovered; so do virtually half of all Republican ladies.
The survey was fielded from Could 15 to June 18, a nationally consultant pattern of three,901 folks ages 18 to 49 who recognized as ladies, trans, nonbinary or one other gender. It discovered that nearly 1 in 10 both struggled to get an abortion after Roe v. Wade’s overturn or knew somebody who had. Nearly two-thirds mentioned they feared abortion bans might jeopardize the well being of their very own future being pregnant or that of somebody near them—together with virtually 40% of Republican respondents.
“Across the board, people are really concerned about the impact of abortion restrictions and abortion bans on people’s health and on safety,” mentioned Usha Ranji, affiliate director for Ladies’s Well being Coverage at KFF.
The findings underscore that, whereas the foremost political events stay divided on abortion, American ladies—and particularly these thought of to be of reproductive age—are pretty aligned.
They largely oppose the 2 stances backed by members of the Republican Occasion: the proposed 15-week ban some politicians have touted, in addition to former President Donald Trump’s present stance of leaving abortion coverage principally as much as particular person states. They usually help Vice President Kamala Harris’ desire of enacting nationwide abortion rights protections.
An individual’s political get together affiliation doesn’t have an enormous affect over whether or not they’re extra prone to have had an abortion, both. The survey discovered that about 14% of respondents—about 1 in 7—have had an abortion of their lifetime. Black and Hispanic respondents had been extra seemingly than white ones to say they’d had an abortion.
About 8% of those that recognized as “pro-life” mentioned that they had had an abortion, in comparison with about 17% of those that recognized as pro-choice. However the numbers had been remarkably related throughout Republicans, Democrats and independents: 12%, 14%, and 15% respectively.
“Pregnancy is a really common experience, and complications can arise, and many cases of pregnant people don’t want to be pregnant,” Ranji mentioned. “Abortion is a medical service. It is health care, and people across all walks of life have used abortion services and continue to.”
The survey additionally sheds gentle into simply how remarkably Roe’s overturn—and the rash of abortion bans it has let take impact—has reshaped folks’s lives.
About 17% of the respondents mentioned that they had modified their contraceptive habits, together with beginning contraception or switching to a more practical methodology, or preserving emergency contraception available. Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, and Hispanic respondents had been all extra seemingly than those that had been white to say that they had modified how they method contraception.
Of those that mentioned they or somebody they know has struggled to get an abortion prior to now two years, most reported that the affected particular person had traveled out of state for care.
Earnings made a distinction. About 75% of those that are financially higher off mentioned they or the particular person they knew had traveled out of state, in comparison with about 62% of these with decrease incomes. (Greater revenue respondents had been these outlined as these incomes at or above 200% of the federal poverty line; in 2024, that was $3,407 per thirty days for a family of two.)
And for a lot of, determining methods to get an abortion—or methods to pay for it—stays tough. About 1 in 3 who mentioned they or somebody they knew struggled to get an abortion indicated that having the cash to pay for the process was one other barrier. About 40% mentioned they didn’t know the place to go for care.
Responses from among the folks surveyed underscore the problem of lining up all of the sources wanted to get care. When requested why she couldn’t obtain an abortion, one respondent mentioned it was as a result of she was “unable to afford the procedure” and that by the point she might have raised the cash, she would have been too far alongside in her being pregnant. One other mentioned she couldn’t afford to exit of state. One other wrote: “I lived an hour and a half from the location and my ride didn’t show up.”
Most respondents didn’t know the authorized standing of abortion their state, and virtually one-fourth incorrectly described their state’s abortion legal guidelines. About 26% mentioned they’d not know the place to go in the event that they wanted details about methods to get an abortion.
Most respondents knew about remedy abortion, the two-drug routine that now accounts for about two-thirds of all abortions. Abortion suppliers have relied on this methodology to achieve sufferers in states with abortion bans, as a result of well being care professionals in states with authorized protections can prescribe and mail tablets to folks in states with restrictions.
That mail-order methodology accounts for a rising share of abortions completed in the US, however the KFF survey suggests that individuals’s consciousness of methods to acquire the tablets is considerably restricted. Solely 19% knew that individuals of their states might get them organized on-line, and other people with decrease incomes had been much less prone to say they knew about this feature. So had been Black and Hispanic respondents in comparison with those that recognized as white, Asian or Pacific Islander, and so had been those that lived in states with abortion bans.
“The information is getting out there to some extent, clearly—but there are a lot of people who don’t know,” Ranji mentioned.
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