A Wall Street Journal poll shows Americans’ support for abortion increased in the months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which recognized a national right to end a pregnancy. The surge in support for abortion could affect November’s midterm elections, with voters seeing abortion as a more important issue than in previous elections. The WSJ poll found that support for abortion rose five percentage points, from 55% in March to 60% in August among all likely voters. But an overwhelming majority of Democrats (83%) said the decision in Dobbs v. POLL: DEMOCRAFT CHANCES IMPROVE MIDWIFE WHILE INFLATION, ABORTION REMAIN TOP ELECTION ISSUES Protesters chant as they join thousands marching around the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark abortion decision Roe v. Wade, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin ) The poll echoed another recent poll showing that abortion is not the most important issue to voters compared to economic concerns such as inflation, but abortion emerged as the top reason voters would turn out in November, according to the WSJ investigation. “Abortion is not an issue that most people, before Dobbs, spent a lot of time thinking about,” said Molly Murphy, a Democratic pollster who helped conduct the WSJ poll with Republican Tony Fabrizio. “What Dobbs has done is, one, we’ve had a national conversation about it. Two, it’s gone from hypothetical to real.” SENATE CANDIDATES FIGHT BACK ON DEMOCRATS’ ABORTION ATTACK ADS When asked about specific restrictions, only 30% supported a ban on abortion after 15 weeks (except in cases of rape, incest or a medical emergency) and 27% said they supported a ban after six weeks of pregnancy. The numbers fell from there, with only 10% saying abortion should be illegal in all cases, according to the poll. Anti-abortion activists participate in the 49th annual March for Life as they march in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on January 21, 2022, in Washington, DC (Win McNamee/Getty Images) “The truth of the matter is, even among Republicans, there is no clear consensus. They want restrictions. The question is what restrictions and how far they should go,” Fabrizio told the WSJ. Republicans seeking office across the country are hitting back at Democratic opponents who are trying to label them as extreme pro-life positions and clarifying their pro-life positions. Tiffany Smiley, the GOP candidate challenging Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a recent ad that “I’m pro-life, but I oppose the federal ban on abortion.” Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters responded to an attack ad by saying that Democrats have more extreme positions on abortion because many do not say there should be limits on abortion. Masters accused Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of lying about his views on abortion in an ad that said the Republican “supports a total ban on abortion. Rape. Incest. No exceptions.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Mark Kelly votes for the most extreme abortion laws in the world,” Masters responded in his own video last week, declaring that the Women’s Health Protection Act Kelly supports is “more extreme than Western Europe , it’s much more extreme than the Arizonan I want.” The Wall Street Journal survey was conducted August 17-25, 2022 with a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points. Thomas Phippen is a contributor at Fox News.
