Red-state Americans see abortion access slipping away

In states where abortion is no longer protected by law, nearly half of residents report that abortion access has narrowed since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

A small but significant number of Americans know someone who has crossed state lines for an abortion, undergone a birth-control procedure or postponed getting pregnant in the months since the landmark ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which negated a constitutional right to abortion after nearly half a century.

The findings, from a new NPR-Ipsos poll, reflect a divisive new reality. In roughly half of the states, a Republican majority doesn't want abortion access to be easy. In the other half, a Democratic majority believes abortion should be available to all.

Nearly 3 in 10 Americans told pollsters that access to abortion had eroded since the Dobbs decision. That share rose to 44 percent in states where abortion is not legal or otherwise protected.

Abortion is now effectively outlawed in at least a dozen states, with exceptions only for medical emergencies. Some states allow abortions in cases of rape or incest. Others do not.

Several red-state abortion bans remain stalled in the courts. The Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights research group, predicts abortion will be banned in 24 states once the post-Dobbs dust clears. The flurry of legislation and litigation would leave abortion mostly legal on the East and West coasts and in parts of the upper Midwest and lower Southwest, and mostly illegal everywhere else.

That patchwork mirrors the sharp national divide in opinions about Roe and abortion.

Seven Republicans in 10 agree with the Dobbs decision, according to the NPR-Ipsos poll. Two-thirds of Republicans believe abortion should be illegal in "most or all cases." Only 9 percent think abortion laws in their states are too strict.

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