About three years after the Supreme Court decision reversing Roe v. Wade — which had established the federal constitutional right to abortion before being overturned — a new YouGov survey finds that an increasing number of Americans believe abortion should always be legal. Around half believe that the decision caused the number of pregnant women denied care during an emergency to increase.
The share of Americans who believe abortion should always be legal and there should be no restrictions on it has increased since August 2024, to 32% from 27%. Among Democrats, 59% believe abortion should always be legal, up from 48% last August. The share of Independents who say abortion should always be legal has increased to 33% from 22%. (Other YouGov polling has found that over a longer time period, views on this question have been mostly stable.)
The share of Republicans who believe abortion should be illegal and should never be allowed has risen since last August, to 22% from 13%.
5% of Americans say they have had an abortion. 17% say a family member has had an abortion and 20% say a close friend has.
9% of women say they have had an abortion. Women are more likely than men to say they have a close friend who has had one (24% vs. 16%). Women are also more likely to say they have acquaintances who have had an abortion (27% vs. 18%). However, women and men are about equally likely to have a family member who has had an abortion (15% vs. 19%). 9% of men and 9% of women prefer not to say if they or someone they know has had an abortion.
Since August 2024, the share of Americans who believe that the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion increased the number of pregnant women who have died has gone up, from 37% to 42%. Only 4% say the number has decreased. Women are more likely than men to believe the number of pregnant women who have died in the years following the ruling has increased (45% vs. 39%).
35% of Americans believe the number of women abused by their partners has increased in the past couple of years as a result of the decision; only 2% think the number has decreased. 47% believe the number of pregnant women denied care during a medical emergency has increased; only 7% say it has decreased.
Among people who have had an abortion or whose family member or close friend did, 57% think the number of pregnant women who have died has increased. 43% think the number of women abused by their partners has increased. 61% think the number of pregnant women denied care during a medical emergency has increased. All figures are higher than among Americans overall.
57% of Americans say the country is off on the wrong track on the issue of abortion. 29% think it is generally headed in the right direction, up from 22% who said this last August.
Both men and women are more likely now than they were last August to say the country is headed in the right direction on abortion. 36% of men think the country is headed in the right direction on abortion, up from 27% last year. Among women, 22% think this, up from 17% last year.
Women are more likely than men to say they think the country is off on the wrong track on abortion (62% vs. 50%).
As has been the case since December 2023, Americans continue to be far more likely to say that abortion restrictions are resulting in doctors providing worse care to pregnant patients than to say restrictions are resulting in better care.
In the most recent polling, in June 2025, 43% of Americans think these restrictions are resulting in worse care for pregnant patients and 9% think the restrictions are resulting in better care.
Women are slightly more likely than men to say they think abortion restrictions are resulting in doctors providing worse medical care to pregnant patients (46% vs. 40%).
49% of Americans think abortion restrictions are resulting in doctors delaying or withholding medical treatment for pregnant patients who may need abortion as a life-saving measure.
Two-thirds (67%) of Americans believe abortion restrictions affect poor women a lot. Less believe they affect middle-class women (30%) or wealthy women (8%) a lot.
Women are more likely than men to say abortion restrictions affect each group a lot: poor women (72% of women and 63% of men say this group is affected a lot), middle-class women (34% vs. 26%), and wealthy women (12% vs. 4%).
About half (52%) of Americans believe that the primary motivation of people who support the constitutional right to abortion is to protect women’s rights. 27% say this is not the primary motivation.
Democrats are less likely now than they were last year to say protecting women’s rights is the primary motivation for people who support the constitutional right to abortion: 65% say this, down from 72% in August 2024. Among Republicans, 45% say protecting women’s rights is the primary motivation, up from 39% who said this last year.
Among Americans who either have had an abortion or whose family member or close friend has had one who have had an abortion, 62% say the primary motivation of people who support the constitutional right to abortion is to protect women’s lives.
35% of Americans believe that the primary motivation of people who oppose the constitutional right to abortion is to protect children’s lives. 44% — including 71% of Democrats and 17% of Republicans — say this is not the primary motivation.
Related:
- Most Democrats say they’d vote for or against a candidate based solely on the candidate's abortion views
- How Americans rate Donald Trump's handling of 52 issues
- Americans trust the Democratic Party more on health care and Republicans more on immigration
See the results for this YouGov survey
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted June 24 - 26, 2025 among 1,016 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (Andrew Harnik / Staff)
What do you really think about President Trump, American politics in general, and everything else? Share your reality, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
