(Week of 3/24/2012) Over half the public admits they don’t know whether it is easy or difficult to get abortions in the place where they live. According to the latest Economist/YouGov Poll, men and women are about equally likely to say they don’t know, but young adults are more likely to say they don’t know than are middle-aged individuals or senior citizens. Politically, Republicans are more than twice as likely as Democrats to think abortions are very easy to obtain.
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Abortion is not an election issue for most voters. Just 4% overall say it is their most important issue. That number is twice as high among GOP voters. 57% of Americans would consider voting for a pro-choice candidate; 51% for a candidate who was pro-life. And there is some party crossover: although all the top GOP candidates call themselves pro-life, 45% of GOP voters would consider voting for a pro-choice candidate; although their party supports abortion rights, 40% of Democratic voters would consider voting for a pro-life candidate.
Americans overall take a middle path when it comes to legalized abortion: 53% think it should be legal in some cases, illegal in others. And while a quarter of Republicans would outlaw abortions in all cases, and 37% of Democrats would allow them, around half of both parties’ identifiers take the middle position.
Economist/YouGov poll archives can be found here
Photo source: Press Association