Nearly half of Americans support national 16-week abortion ban
Nearly half of United States citizens say they would support a federal ban on abortion after 16 weeks into a pregnancy, according to a recent poll.
The Economist/YouGov recently released a report based on a survey of 1,562 U.S. citizens conducted Feb. 18-20, with a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.
According to their findings, 48% of Americans surveyed support a national 16-week abortion ban, while 36% of respondents oppose the idea and 16% said they were unsure.
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Additionally, 24% of Americans said they oppose all restrictions on abortion, while 29% said they support some restrictions, 38% support banning abortion in most circumstances and 8% support a total ban on abortion.
When asked how they felt President Joe Biden was handling the issue, 38% of respondents said they approved, while 43% disapproved and 19% held no opinion on the matter.
The survey also gauged Americans' responses on a variety of other topics, including that 53% disapproved of Biden’s overall job performance as president, 46% expressed a favorable opinion of former President Donald Trump, and 74% held an unfavorable opinion of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Recently, The New York Times published a report claiming that, according to sources within his campaign, Trump would support a national 16-week abortion ban, with exceptions provided for rape, incest or a medical emergency.
For their part, the Trump campaign has denied the validity of the NY Times story, labeling it “fake news” and stating that, if elected, a different plan would be considered.
“As President Trump has stated, he would sit down with both sides and negotiate a deal that everyone will be happy with,” Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt asserted in a statement to The Washington Post.
The Biden campaign released a statement in response to the report, claiming that “Trump is running scared” because he was “the one responsible for taking away women’s freedom.” Biden’s comment reflects the fact that Trump appointed three of the justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
“He’s afraid the women of America are going to hold him responsible for taking away their rights [to abortion] and endangering their rights at the ballot box in November. Which is exactly what’s going to happen,” Biden claimed, according to WaPo.
