Gallup poll shows most Americans would vote for a 15-week abortion ban
Timothy P. Carney
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Democrats in 2022 enjoyed campaigning against the Republicans’ “national abortion ban,” which seemed to work. It sounded very absolute, and most Americans’ views on abortion are not absolute.
Most Americans believe that abortion should sometimes be illegal and sometimes be legal. Most think it is sometimes immoral, and sometimes acceptable.
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But here’s the thing: Most Americans also agree with the substance of the Republicans’ 2022 “national abortion ban,” according to the latest Gallup Poll.
Gallup’s writers chose to tout the post-Dobbs shift in favor of abortion in this poll, but even after this shift, here’s a telling fact: only 37% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in the second trimester, while 55% say it should be legal.
Lindsey Graham’s proposed “national abortion ban” kicked in at 15 weeks. The poll asked about the “second three months of pregnancy,” which begins in the 13th week.
Again, this isn’t new. Gallup has always found that a majority believe second-trimester abortions should be illegal.
So why would the public turn against the GOP for advancing a bill to ban second-trimester abortion when the public — by a nearly 20-point margin — thinks second-trimester abortions should be illegal? Again, it was spun by the Democrats and the national news media.
“National abortion ban” sounds like a total abortion ban. And the left-leaning major news media, where more than 90% of reporters and editors are far left on abortion, generally adopted the Democrats’ spin.
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Check out this CNN story. It simply adopts the Democrats’ poll-tested wording in the headline, and makes you read until paragraph 11 to learn that the ban only kicked in when the baby was 15 weeks in gestation.
Most Americans are not where the pro-life movement is, believing that the government has a duty to protect human life, even in its earliest stages. But most Americans are where congressional Republicans are: wanting to ban abortion after the first trimester.