New Poll Shows Solid Support for National Abortion Ban After 16 Weeks — Just Like Trump Is Proposing
Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP.
A surprising new poll from YouGov suggests that there’s a substantial plurality of Americans who would support a national ban on abortions performed after 16 weeks.
According to the survey of 1,560 Americans conducted between February 18-20, 48% of the country would support a national ban after roughly four months of pregnancy and just 36% would oppose such a measure.
YouGov Poll: Do you Support or Oppose a national ban on abortions after 16 weeks of pregnancy?
Support 48%
Oppose 36%
—
Male: 49-33
Female: 47-39
18-29 y/o: 52-33
White: 49-37
Black: 46-28
Hispanic: 47-34
Dem: 35-50
GOP: 67-23
Indie: 43-33
—
538: #4 | 2/18-20 | N=1,560 pic.twitter.com/ClL5psk8tc— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) February 21, 2024
The results were released just a few days after The New York Times reported that Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is weighing throwing his support behind a national abortion ban at that same cutoff point.
From the Times‘ report:
Former President Donald J. Trump has told advisers and allies that he likes the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban with three exceptions, in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother, according to two people with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s deliberations.
Mr. Trump has studiously avoided taking a clear position on restrictions to abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in the middle of 2022, galvanizing Democrats ahead of the midterm elections that year. He has said in private that he wants to wait until the Republican presidential primary contest is over to publicly discuss his views, because he doesn’t want to risk alienating social conservatives before he has secured the nomination, the two people said.
Mr. Trump has approached abortion transactionally since becoming a candidate in 2015, and his current private discussions reflect that same approach.
One thing Mr. Trump likes about a 16-week federal ban on abortions is that it’s a round number. “Know what I like about 16?” Mr. Trump told one of these people, who was given anonymity to describe a private conversation. “It’s even. It’s four months.”
The poll lends some credence to Trump’s theorizing about such a ban’s political viability and to pro-lifers’ hopes in the wake of a string of defeats at the ballot box.
