Health Care

40 percent of Americans say abortion is one of their most important issues: survey

Abortion-rights supporters attend the "Bans Off Our Bodies Abortion Rally" at Los Angeles City Hall, Saturday, May 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

About 40 percent of Americans list abortion as one of the most important issues in the country, according to a new Marquette Law School Poll

The new poll, published on Thursday, found that 39 percent of those surveyed said that the issue of abortion is somewhat important to them, while 21 percent of respondents said the issue isn’t important to them. 

Thirty-one percent of Republican respondents said that abortion is one of the country’s most important issues, while 44 percent of Republican respondents said the issue of abortion is somewhat important and 17 percent said the topic of abortion isn’t important at all.

Forty-eight percent of Democrat respondents said that abortion is one of the country’s most important issues, while 14 percent of respondents who are Democrats disagree, according to the poll.

Thirty-eight percent of independent respondents believe that abortion is one of the country’s most important issues, while 25 percent of those respondents believe that abortion isn’t an important topic. 

According to the survey results, those who said that abortion should be illegal in all cases are most likely to say it is one of the most important issues. Sixty-seven percent of those who said abortion should be illegal in all cases said it is one of the most important issues. Similarly, 60 percent of people who said that abortion should be legal in all cases said it is one of the most important issues.

The most recent polling comes after a draft opinion penned by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was published by Politico indicating that the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade would be overturned. The 1973 decision determined that a woman’s right to abortion was constitutional.

The latest Marquette Law School poll was conducted from May 9-19 with a total of 1,004 respondents. The poll margin of error was plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.