More than a quarter of registered US voters say they will only vote for candidates who share their beliefs on abortion, according to a poll released on Wednesday, a total (28%) one point higher than last year.
The survey, from Gallup, was released before the first anniversary of Dobbs v Jackson, by which conservatives on the supreme court removed the right to abortion that had been safeguarded since Roe v Wade in 1973.
A majority of Americans think abortion should be legal at least in some form. Since Dobbs, abortion rights has been seen as a vital motivating factor in a succession of Democratic successes.
According to another poll released on Wednesday, by NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist, 57% of Americans say the court was wrong to bring down Roe.
According to Gallup, for many voters who do not solely base their vote on abortion, the issue is still important: just 14% of respondents said abortion was not a major issue in deciding how they vote. That was down two points on the same survey last year and nine points from the previous low, 23%, in 2007.
In the new Gallup survey, 56% said abortion was just one issue out of many when deciding how to vote. In 2022, 54% gave that answer.
Primary elections continue to serve as a testing ground for the issue.
In Virginia, a state that often indicates national voting trends and where abortion access is shrinking, politicians espousing anti-abortion views are losing popularity.
On Tuesday, incumbents in favor of limiting or banning abortion access lost their elections.
Amanda Chase, who has been in the state senate since 2016 and describes herself as “Trump in heels”, lost her Republican primary. Chase is in favor of completely banning abortion.
Another incumbent Virginia state senator, Joe Morrissey, a centrist Democrat, has pushed for limits on abortion access, trying to pass a bill with Republicans to ban abortion after 20 weeks. He also lost his primary, beaten by a former state legislator, Lashrecse Aird, by an overwhelming 70%.
Gallup said the Dobbs decision had a profound impact on voters on both sides of the issue.
“Not only did the supreme court’s Dobbs decision cause more Americans to identify as pro-choice than had for the prior quarter-century,” the pollster said, “it also caused that expanded group of pro-choice identifiers to attach greater importance to a candidate’s abortion stance when they vote.
“Meanwhile, the diminished pro-life segment of the electorate is less energized on the issue than they have been previously, indicating that the desire to see laws changed is more motivating to voters than wanting current laws maintained.”