SIGN OF THE TIMES

Voters More Supportive of Abortion After Reversal of Roe, Poll Shows

Abortion issues are also projected to pull more voters to midterm elections, which Republicans had previously predicted would focus on economic issues.

A new survey by the Wall Street Journal found that more voters support abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in June. Sixty percent of voters said abortion should be legal in most or all cases—an increase on 55 percent in March. At the same time, the share of voters in favor of criminalizing abortion decreased, with 6 percent saying abortion should be illegal in all cases (vs. 11 percent in March) and 29 percent saying it should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest, and when the woman's life is in danger (vs. 30 percent in March). Since the Dobbs ruling, around a dozen states have banned abortion, and these survey results indicate that abortion will be a significant issue—and one that could help the Democrats—in the upcoming midterm elections, which Republicans had expected to focus on economic issues. More than half of voters said that Dobbs has made them more motivated to vote in the midterms.