Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters favor a proposal allowing abortions up to the moment a heartbeat is detected in the fetus. After that, abortions would not be allowed except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that 41% are opposed and 13% are not sure.
The totals include 23% who Strongly Favor such a proposal and 27% who are Strongly Opposed. Among those most motivated to vote in the 2022 Midterm Elections, support for the measure is somewhat stronger than among the general population.
The survey also found that 46% of voters mistakenly believe that the abortion laws in the United States are more restrictive than in most European nations. Just 17% believe they are less restrictive.
The Washington Post reports that the United States is one of only seven countries in the world that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of a pregnancy. The others are North Korea, Vietnam, China, Canada, Netherlands, and Singapore.
In Canada, some provinces allow elective abortions only during the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy while others extend the limit to 24 weeks. However, abortions after 20 weeks are not always readily available for Canadians, so women are often referred to a clinic in the United States,
Data released earlier showed that 36% of voters believe it is too easy to get an abortion in America while 26% think it is too hard.
Given a choice, 56% of voters would support a candidate who said abortion should be allowed only during the first three months of a pregnancy rather than at any point during the pregnancy. Just 23% hold the opposite view and 21% are not sure.
Forty-nine percent (49%) of voters know of close friends or relatives who have had an abortion. That total includes 49% of those who attend church or other religious services every week.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of those with a college degree know someone who has had an abortion. Among those without a degree, that figure is 43%.
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Note: Neither Scott Rasmussen, ScottRasmussen.com, nor RMG Research, Inc. have any affiliation with Rasmussen Reports. While Scott Rasmussen founded that firm, he left more than seven years ago and has had no involvement since that time.
Methodology
The survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on September 8, 2021. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population.
The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 2.8 percentage points.
