A brand new survey from KFF, a well being coverage analysis nonprofit, finds that bans are broadly unpopular, and most girls assist nationwide abortion protections.
Initially revealed by The nineteenth
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Most ladies between the ages of 18 and 49 assist a nationwide proper to abortion, oppose a nationwide ban on the process, and don’t imagine abortion rights must 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 assist a legislation enshrining a nationwide abortion proper, the ballot discovered; so do nearly half of all Republican ladies.
The survey was fielded from Might 15 to June 18, taking a look at 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 stated they feared abortion bans may jeopardize the well being of their very own future being pregnant or that of somebody near them—together with nearly 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,” stated 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. And so they assist Vice President Kamala Harris’ desire of enacting nationwide abortion rights protections.
An individual’s political social gathering affiliation doesn’t have a giant affect over whether or not they’re extra more likely 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 have been extra doubtless than white ones to say they’d had an abortion.
About 8% of those that recognized as “pro-life” stated they’d had an abortion, in comparison with about 17% of those that recognized as pro-choice. However the numbers have been remarkably comparable 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 stated. “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 mild 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 stated they’d modified their contraceptive habits, together with beginning contraception or switching to a simpler methodology, or holding emergency contraception available. Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, and Hispanic respondents have been all extra doubtless than those that have been white to say they’d modified how they method contraception.
Of those that stated they or somebody they know has struggled to get an abortion up 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 stated they or the particular person they knew had traveled out of state, in comparison with about 62% of these with decrease incomes. (Increased earnings respondents have been these outlined as these incomes at or above 200% of the federal poverty line; in 2024, that was $3,407 monthly for a family of two.)
And for a lot of, determining the right way to get an abortion—or the right way to pay for it—stays tough. About 1 in 3 who stated 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% stated they didn’t know the place to go for care.
Responses from a number of the folks surveyed underscore the issue of lining up all of the sources wanted to get care. When requested why she couldn’t obtain an abortion, one respondent stated it was as a result of she was “unable to afford the procedure” and that by the point she may have raised the cash, she would have been too far alongside in her being pregnant. One other stated 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 nearly one-fourth incorrectly described their state’s abortion legal guidelines. About 26% stated they might not know the place to go in the event that they wanted details about the right way 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 succeed in 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 achieved in the USA, however the KFF survey suggests that individuals’s consciousness of the right way to receive the tablets is considerably restricted. Solely 19% knew that individuals of their states may organize them on-line, and folks with decrease incomes have been much less more likely to say they knew about this feature. So have been Black and Hispanic respondents in comparison with those that recognized as white, Asian or Pacific Islander, and so have 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 stated.
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