Poll: Half of voters support maintaining Roe v. Wade

By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, voters oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted immediately after POLITICO published a draft opinion from the Supreme Court that would eviscerate the 1973 precedent guaranteeing federal abortion rights.

Half of voters (50 percent) say Roe v. Wade should not be overturned — more than the 28 percent who say it should be overturned. More than 2-in-10 voters, 22 percent, are undecided, according to the poll.

Majorities of Democrats (68 percent) and Independents (52 percent) say Roe should not be overturned, while a narrow majority of Republicans (51 percent) say it should.

The poll was conducted Tuesday, the day after POLITICO published Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion, which would strike down Roe v. Wade and allow states to restrict abortion.

Asked whether abortion should be legal or illegal nationwide, or whether it should be up to the states, 47 percent say it should be legal, 21 percent say it should be illegal, and 19 percent say it should be up to the states to decide.

While there is little support for striking down Roe v. Wade, polls do suggest some limits on abortion are popular. Only 25 percent of voters surveyed in the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll say abortion should be “legal in all cases,” though an additional 31 percent say it should be “legal in most cases.” Roughly a quarter, 24 percent, say abortion should be “illegal in most cases,” and only 11 percent say it should be “illegal in all cases.”

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll surveyed 1,955 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Polls conducted entirely in one day can also include other sources of error.

A similar dynamic was evident in a Fox News poll released Tuesday, but conducted prior to POLITICO’s report. That poll found voters overwhelmingly think Roe v. Wade should stand vs. overturned, 63 percent to 27 percent. But 54 percent of voters say they would support a 15-week abortion ban similar to the one the Supreme Court is weighing from Mississippi in their own state.

Morning Consult is a global data intelligence company, delivering insights on what people think in real time by surveying tens of thousands across the globe every single day.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents: Toplines | Crosstabs