Abortion is the top subject for 1 in 8 voters in the 2024 election following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a new poll from the healthcare policy think tank KFF.
“In the two years post [Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization], there seems to be a new generation of abortion voters largely made up of those who want abortion to be legal in all cases,” Shannon Schumacher and her colleagues wrote in a commentary on the new poll published on Thursday.
In addition to the 12% of voters who say abortion is the “most important issue” in the election season, over half of all other voters, 52%, say it is a “very important issue but not the most important.”
Prior to the overturning of Roe, single-issue abortion voters were more likely to be anti-abortion Republicans. In 2004, anti-abortion adults were more than twice as likely as abortion-rights supporters to describe themselves as single-issue voters.
Now, 20 years later, surveys indicate that a new bloc of abortion voters has arisen, largely composed of those who want to see abortion “legal in all cases.” This group disproportionately represents black, Democratic, female, and young voters.
Approximately 1 in 6 reproductive-age women, between 18 and 49, say abortion is the most important issue. This bloc overwhelmingly, at 86%, believes the decision to obtain an abortion should be between a patient and her doctor.
A total of 55% of voters would prefer to see some sort of federal government protection of abortion rights, including 77% of Democrats and 58% of independents. Only 36% of Republicans and 35% of Republican women would like to see a prohibition of abortion nationwide.
Which political party or presidential candidate a voter trusts to handle the matter of abortion in the 2024 election is largely divided on partisan lines.
Overall, 41% of voters, including 84% of Democrats, trust the Democratic Party more on abortion policy. Only 27% of the total voting population, including 68% of Republicans, trust the Republican Party.
Only 79% of Democratic voters trust President Joe Biden on abortion, while 70% of Republican voters trust former President Donald Trump. Over 1 in 5 voters, or 21%, trust neither candidate on abortion.
Contraception access is also on voters’ minds in the election season.
Only 45% of respondents considered the use of contraception “a secure right likely to remain in place,” while 21% say they consider the freedom to use contraception “a threatened right likely to be overturned.”
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Biden is slated to make abortion and contraception access a central part of his State of the Union address on Thursday.
First lady Jill Biden’s guest at the address will be Kate Cox, a Texas mother of two who was denied an abortion following the fetal diagnosis of the genetic condition Trisomy 18. Senate Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-WA) has also invited Kayla Smith, who traveled from Idaho to Washington state in 2022 to obtain an abortion after finding out via ultrasound that her child had fatal cardiac anomalies.