July 24, 2025
The latest AP-NORC poll indicates continued support for legal access to abortion in all or most cases. Support hasn’t shifted much since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion. While large majorities support legal abortion in some relatively rare circumstances, opinion is more divided over other post-Dobbs considerations including shield laws for health care providers, protecting access for pregnant people to obtain an abortion out of state, and the ability of doctors to prescribe and mail abortion pills from states where abortion is legal to patients in states where it is banned.
Sixty-four percent say abortion should be legal in all (25%) or most (38%) cases, while 36% think the procedure should be banned in all (9%) or most (27%) cases. Support for legal abortion in all or most cases is similar to results of AP-NORC surveys conducted in 2023 (64 %) and 2022 (63%), but down slightly from last year (70%).
Partisan differences persist on whether abortion should be lawful or not. Eighty-five percent of Democrats say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 59% of Republicans think it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Most people continue to say that their state should allow legal abortion if a fetal abnormality would prevent the child from surviving outside the womb, if the patient’s own health is seriously endangered by the pregnancy, or if the patient became pregnant as a result of rape or incest. There is less support for a legal abortion for any reason. Large majorities of both Republicans and Democrats believe abortion should be permitted in these more extreme circumstances, but there is a large partisan gap on legal abortions if someone does not want to be pregnant for any reason. Three-quarters of Democrats think an abortion for any reason should be allowed, while 7 in 10 Republicans disagree.
In 2024, 61% said abortion should be available if the person doesn’t want to be pregnant for any reason. Now, opinions are more closely divided, with 52% in favor and 47% against, similar to the public’s view in 2021, before the Supreme Court’s decision overturned Roe V. Wade. Support fell in both parties.
There is more support than opposition for many post-Dobbs abortion access policies though roughly a quarter of the public doesn’t hold firm attitudes about them. Seven in 10 favor protecting abortion access in cases of maternal medical emergencies. A slight majority think people should be allowed to travel to obtain an abortion in a different state and that doctors who provide abortions should be protected from legal repercussions. There is less support for permitting doctors to prescribe and mail abortion pills to patients in states where the procedure is not legal.
Regardless of party identification, most say anyone who is experiencing a miscarriage or other pregnancy-related emergency should have access to an abortion.
A majority of Democrats also favor allowing patients to travel out-of-state for an abortion, shielding abortion providers from legal problems, and permitting doctors to prescribe and mail abortion pills.
In contrast, there is less support from Republicans in these situations.
The nationwide poll was conducted July 10-14, 2025 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,437 adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3.6 percentage points. Respondents age 18-29 were sampled at a higher rate than their proportion of the population for reasons of analysis. The overall margin of sampling error for the 386 interviews completed with respondents age 18-29 is +/- 6.6 percentage points.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “Support for legal abortion remains strong.” (July 2025). https://apnorc.org/projects/support-for-legal-abortion-remains-strong/
