This week four major news outlets conducted two polls which included a question about limiting late-term abortion. Below we have summarized the findings of the two polls:
Washington Post/ABC News (56%/27%)
The Washington Post and ABC News contracted polling company Capital Insight for their poll. This poll which ran from July 18 to 21 asked the following question regarding late-term abortion:
“The U.S. Supreme Court has said abortion is legal without restriction in about the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. Some states have passed laws reducing this to 20 weeks. If it has to be one or the other, would you rather have abortions legal without restriction up to (20) weeks, or up to (24) weeks?”
The results are as follows:
Analyzing the results at the Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin and Scott Clement summarized the results: “By a margin of 56 to 27 percent, more Americans say they’d prefer to impose limits on abortions after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy rather than the 24-week mark established under current law.” [Click here to read further analysis]
It is interesting to note that female respondents were even more supportive of a 20-week limit:
Wall Street Journal/NBC News (44%/37%)
The Wall Street Journal and NBC News contracted Bill McInturff at Public Opinion Strategies and Fred Yang at Hart Research Associates for their poll. This poll which ran from July 17-21 asked the following question regarding late-term abortion:
“Some state legislatures are proposing banning abortions after twenty weeks post-fertilization unless the life of the mother is in immediate danger. People who support this ban say twenty weeks after fertilization is the point at which a fetus is capable of experiencing pain. People who oppose this ban say medical decisions should be between a woman and her doctor and government should not be involved. How about you?”
The results are as follows:
Analyzing the results at the Wall Street Journal, Neil King, Jr. summarized the results: “In the new survey of 1,000 Americans, 44% said they would support a ban in their state on abortions 20 weeks postfertilization, compared with 37% who would oppose such a ban.” [Click here to read further analysis]
Summary of Polls
The above polling came just days after Rasmussen released results of a similar question in polling they had conducted on July 16-17. This poll found that 44% favored restricting abortion after 20 Weeks while 41% favored restricting abortion after 24 weeks.
All three of the highly reputable polls covered in this article clearly show that a plurality of Americans prefer reducing the limit on late-term abortions from 24 weeks to 20 weeks.
