Most Americans believe that people should be allowed to have abortions near the start of a pregnancy and not later on. A new YouGov survey explores at what point in a typical pregnancy Americans think abortions should start to be restricted and whether they think there are certain circumstances when abortions should be allowed after that time.
55% of Americans say that in most circumstances, an abortion should be allowed up until a certain time in pregnancy and restricted after that. Fewer say that abortion should be restricted at all times in a pregnancy (24%) or that it should be allowed at any time in a pregnancy (21%).
Republicans (42%) are more likely than Independents (20%) and Democrats (12%) to say abortion should be restricted at all times in a pregnancy.
According to recent media reports, Donald Trump has privately stated that he supports a national law outlawing abortions after 16 weeks of pregnancy.
YouGov’s poll finds that 5% of Americans think that the 16-week mark is the precise point at which there should start to be restrictions on who is allowed to receive an abortion. 31% think there should be restrictions on who is allowed to receive an abortion at some point before 16 weeks. 14% of Americans think the time at which there should be restrictions on who is allowed to receive an abortion should come later than 16 weeks.
Additional data from another recent YouGov poll finds 53% of Americans would support a national law outlawing abortion after 16 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman. 43% say they would not consider such a law to be a “ban on abortion.”
Among people who think there shouldn't be restrictions on abortion before 16 weeks of pregnancy, most believe that even when most abortions should be restricted, there should be exceptions to the restrictions in certain cases. 90% think that if a person’s own life is endangered by the pregnancy, abortion should be allowed. 90% also say abortion should be allowed in cases where the pregnant person's health is endangered by the pregnancy. 87% say abortion should be allowed in cases where the fetus is diagnosed with a fatal condition and 80% say abortion should be allowed if the person is pregnant as a result of rape. 75% say abortion should be allowed if the fetus is diagnosed with a serious disability; the same share (75%) say abortion should be allowed if the pregnancy is the result of incest.
People who favor abortion restrictions beginning earlier in pregnancy — at some point between the first week and the 15th week of pregnancy — also believe exceptions to these restrictions should be made to allow abortion in the case of the person’s life being endangered by the pregnancy (82%), the person’s health being endangered by the pregnancy (77%), the fetus being diagnosed with a fatal condition (72%), or the pregnancy resulting from rape (74%). 54% believe abortion should be allowed in cases where the fetus is diagnosed with a serious disability.
Among people who think abortions should always be restricted regardless of how long a person has been pregnant, there is limited support for abortions in certain circumstances. 61% say abortion should be allowed in cases where the person’s life is endangered, 53% when their health is endangered, and 43% when the fetus is diagnosed with a fatal condition. 36% support a right to abortion if a person is pregnant as a result of incest and 32% support it when the pregnancy resulted from rape. If the fetus is diagnosed with a serious disability, 28% think abortion should be allowed.
— Taylor Orth and Carl Bialik contributed to this article
Related:
- More Americans support than oppose a 16-week abortion ban
- Americans lack consensus on ideal abortion laws
- Laws legalizing abortion and same-sex marriage nationwide are more popular than nationwide bans
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: The YouGov poll was conducted online on February 26 - March 3, 2024 among 1,000 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
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