Nearly half of American voters say they’ll support a candidate who wants to keep abortion legal

Less than half of American voters in a new poll said they would support a candidate who wants to keep abortion legal, highlighting how significant the issue is on voters’ minds just over a week before midterm Election Day.

A new ABC News-Ipsos poll found that 48 percent of registered voters would support a candidate who favors keeping abortion legal, with 33 percent saying they would support one who favors limiting abortion except to protect the mother’s life. Eighteen percent said the issue does not matter in their vote.

Looking more closely at the issue, 61 percent of Americans and 62 percent of registered voters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. However, pollsters noted that most Americans are in the middle, with 34 percent saying abortion should be legal in most cases and another 30 percent saying it should be illegal in most cases. Seven percent say they favor an outright ban on abortion.

Abortion has weighed heavily on voters’ minds, taking higher priority with Democrats since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June. Now, abortion access could be impacted in various states based on the results of the upcoming election.

However, abortion is not the only issue taking the spotlight, as 50 percent in the poll say either the economy (28 percent) or inflation (22 percent) is the most important issue when it comes to voting in the midterms. The third-most important issue is abortion, with 16 percent saying the issue takes precedence.

However, the value of the issues changes along party lines.

Priorities on the Republican side lie with economic issues, as 73 percent cite one of those two issues, including 45 percent for the economy and 28 percent for inflation. Half of independents also cite the economy or inflation as the single most important issue.

The poll was conducted from Oct. 28 to Oct. 29 on a nationally representative probability sample of 729 general population adults as well as 621 registered voters. The margin of error is 3.9 percentage points.