On the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, 6 in 10 voters remain opposed to the court’s removing federal protection of the right to abortion, according to results from a new national NBC News poll.
Nearly 80% of female voters ages 18-49, two-thirds of suburban women, 60% of independents and even a third of Republican voters say they disapprove.
And by more than a 2-to-1 ratio, voters say abortion access across the country has become too difficult rather than too easy. A plurality — 43% — say their home states have struck the right balance, though there’s a considerable geographical difference on this question.
“Without a doubt, the issue of abortion will continue to shape our country’s political and electoral landscape moving forward,” said Democratic pollster Aileen Cardona-Arroyo of Hart Research Associates, which conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff and his team at Public Opinion Strategies.
McInturff said: “The data is stable and clear — a majority of voters support at least some access to abortion. A year after the Dobbs decision, though, there is no change in voters saying access is too difficult in their state.”
In the poll, 61% of all voters say they disapprove of the 5-4 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which leaves the legality and conditions of abortion up to individual states.
The total includes a majority of voters — 53% — who strongly disapprove of the decision. By comparison, 36% of voters say they approve of it, including 27% who strongly approve.
The numbers are essentially unchanged from an NBC News poll in September — conducted two months before last year’s midterm elections — when an identical 61% said they disapproved of overturning Roe v. Wade, compared to 37% who approved.
And they’re nearly unmoved from August — two months after the Dobbs decision — when 58% disapproved and 38% approved.
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Inside the new numbers, majorities of men (55%) and women (67%); white (57%), Latino (70%) and Black voters (78%); and urban (71%) and suburban residents (57%) all disapprove of the Dobbs decision.
By comparison, majorities of Republicans (65%) and rural voters (53%) say they approve.
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Cardona-Arroyo, the Democratic pollster, said there’s an intensity gap between the parties — with 87% of Democrats strongly disapproving of overturning Roe, compared to 52% of Republicans who strongly approve.
“As abortion remains a salient electoral issue, this could have implications for how the issue impacts turnout and mobilization,” she said.
The NBC News poll also finds 22% of registered voters say abortion access has become too difficult in their states, 17% say it’s too easy and 43% say their states have struck the right balance.
But there’s a geographical difference: Majorities of voters in the West (57%) and the Northeast (55%) say their states have struck the right balance, compared to 38% in the Midwest and just 29% in the South.
Asked about abortion access nationwide, 53% say it has become too difficult, 23% say it has become too easy and 13% say the nation has struck the right balance.
“While voters are generally more resolute in the perception that abortion access is too difficult at the national level, they are less critical of access in their own states,” Cardona-Arroyo said.
The NBC News poll was conducted June 16-20 of 1,000 registered voters — 831 of whom were reached by cellphone — and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.
The rest of the NBC News poll will be released in the coming days.
