Poll: Most Americans want to vote on abortion rights at the state level


A majority of Americans want to vote on abortion on their state ballot, a new Ipsos/USA Today poll found.
The survey, released Wednesday, shows that 7 in 10 Americans, regardless of their party affiliation, want to vote on an abortion-related state ballot measure. Broken down, 73 percent of Democrats, 77 percent of Republicans, and 67 percent of independents supported the idea of voting on abortion. The poll also found that 54 percent of Americans would vote in favor of abortion legality and 28 percent would vote against it.
"With abortion no longer a constitutional right, Americans are looking to the voting booth to have their voice heard on the issue," Ipsos President Cliff Young said. "However, the divisions that exist across the states could bring legal, medical, and lifelong consequences for many parts of the country." Four states — California, Kentucky, Montana, and Vermont — will have abortion measures on their ballots this fall.
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The poll was conducted online August 5-8, after Kansas voted to reject an amendment that would have removed abortion protections in the state's Constitution. The poll had 1,018 respondents and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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