In states with abortion bans, a rise in the share of adults saying it should be easier to access abortion in the area where they live
Pew Research Center conducted this study to better understand Americans’ views on the legality of abortion, as well as their perceptions about abortion access. For this analysis, we surveyed 5,079 adults from March 27 to April 2, 2023. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
Here are the questions used for the report, along with responses, and its methodology.
Nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs ruling overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that had guaranteed a national right to abortion, overall public support for legal abortion remains largely unchanged.
However, a growing share of Americans living in states where abortion is prohibited say abortions are hard to obtain in their local area. And the share of people in these states who say access to abortion should be easier has increased since August 2019.
Today, a 54% majority of Americans nationwide say it would be very easy or somewhat easy to get an abortion in the area where they live, down from 65% in 2019. About four-in-ten (42%) say it would be very or somewhat difficult to get an abortion in areas near them, up 10 percentage points from four years ago.
The most striking change has occurred among people living in states where abortion is now prohibited: About seven-in-ten (71%) say it would be difficult to get an abortion, up from the half who said this in 2019.
A majority (56%) of those living in states where abortion is restricted or in legal dispute say it would be difficult to get an abortion today, up 15 points from four years ago.
The new survey by Pew Research Center, conducted among 5,079 adults from March 27 to April 2, 2023, on the Center’s nationally representative American Trends Panel, finds that views about access to abortion are little changed in states where abortion is still legal. Just 22% of adults in these states say it would be difficult to get an abortion; 19% said this in 2019.
The survey finds that Americans are also more likely to say it should be easier to obtain an abortion than they were in 2019. About a third of adults (34%) say it should be easier for someone in the area where they live to obtain an abortion, an 8-point increase since 2019. This shift stems largely from those who live in states where abortion is now prohibited (43% say access should be easier, up from 31% in 2019) and those in states where it is restricted (38%, up from 27%).
These changes come at a time when Americans’ views on whether abortion should be legal overall are nearly identical to what they were following the Dobbs ruling last June. About six-in-ten Americans (62%) continue to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared with 36% who say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
As has long been the case, there are deep partisan differences in opinions about abortion: Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases (84% vs. 40%).
While these views have changed little in recent years, support for legal abortion is higher than it was a decade ago. Much of the change has come among Democrats: A decade ago, roughly two-thirds of Democrats favored legal abortion. There has been far less change in Republicans’ views over this period.
Most Americans (80%) say their views on abortion have not changed over the past year, while 13% say their views have changed a little and 6% say they have changed a lot.
(For views on access to medication abortions, read: “By more than two-to-one, Americans say medication abortion should be legal in their state.”)
Views of state abortion laws and perceptions of local abortion access
With an increasing number of states enacting bans on abortion or restricting abortion access, far more Americans say their greater concern with abortion policies around the country is that some states are making it too difficult – rather than too easy – to get an abortion.
The public’s concerns about state policies on abortion, as well as the partisan differences in these opinions, are similar to attitudes regarding the legality of abortion.
Around six-in-ten Americans (62%) say their greater concern is that some states are making it too difficult to get an abortion, while 35% say their greater concern is that some states are making it too easy to get an abortion.
Democrats overwhelmingly say their greater concern with abortion policies across the country is that some states are making it too hard to get an abortion (85% express this view). A smaller majority of Republicans (58%) say their bigger concern is that some states are making it too easy.
While fewer Americans today say it would be easy for someone to obtain an abortion in the area where they live than did so in 2019, a majority (54%) still say it would be very or somewhat easy to get an abortion. About four-in-ten (42%) say this would be very or somewhat difficult. Similar shares of Republicans and Democrats say it would be very or somewhat easy to get an abortion near them (56% and 54%, respectively).
By a modest margin (34% to 27%), more Americans say it should be easier, rather than harder, for someone to get an abortion in the area where they live; 35% say access to abortion in the area where they live should be about what it is now. By more than two-to-one, Republicans say it should be harder, rather than easier, for people to obtain an abortion locally (44% to 20%). Democrats, by a four-to-one margin (48% to 12%), say abortions should be easier, rather than harder, to obtain in the area where they live.
People living in states where abortion is prohibited are the most likely to view access to abortion in the area where they live as difficult: 71% of those in these states say it would be very or somewhat difficult to get an abortion near them. While 83% of Democrats living in these states say it would be difficult to get an abortion, a smaller majority of Republicans living in these states (64%) say the same.
Among those in states where abortion has been restricted or where abortion policies are currently in legal dispute, more than half of adults (56%) say it would be very or somewhat difficult to get an abortion near them. Two-thirds of Democrats (67%) and nearly half of Republicans (46%) in these states say it would be hard for someone to obtain an abortion where they live.
Those in states where abortion remains legal are the least likely to view access to abortion in the area where they live as difficult; 22% say it would be very or somewhat difficult to get an abortion near them. Identical shares of Republicans and Democrats in these states say obtaining an abortion would be difficult (22% each).
Across demographic groups, support and opposition to legal abortion have remained largely unchanged since last year. Overall, around six-in-ten Americans say abortion should be legal in all (27%) or most (35%) cases, while 36% say it should be illegal in all (9%) or most (27%) cases.
As in recent years, there continue to be wide partisan and demographic differences in views about the legality of abortion. Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans (84% vs. 40%) to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Conservative Republicans are the ideological group most opposed to legal abortion, with 72% saying abortion should be illegal in all or most cases and 26% saying abortion should be legal. By contrast, a majority of moderate and liberal Republicans (61%) say it should be legal in at least most cases.
Among Democrats, support for legal abortion is nearly universal among liberals: 94% think it should be legal in at least most cases, including 58% who say it should be legal in all cases. A smaller majority of conservative and moderate Democrats (76%) favor legal abortion.
There also continue to be wide differences by age, race and ethnicity in views of legal abortion. Nearly three-fourths (73%) of adults ages 18 to 29 say abortion should be legal in all or most cases (including 39% who say it should be legal in all cases), compared with 62% of those 30 to 49 and 57% of those 50 and older.
Nearly three-quarters of Black and Asian adults (73% each) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Around six-in-ten White (59%) and Hispanic (62%) adults say the same.
As in the past, there are relatively modest differences in opinions by gender about abortion. Nearly two-thirds of women (64%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared with six-in-ten men who say the same.
