Protesters for and against abortion outside the U.S. Supreme Court. A new survey of swing state voters shows bipartisan support for protecting abortion before fetal viability. | Getty Images photo by Alex Wong
A majority of Wisconsinites are opposed to criminalizing abortion before fetal viability, according to a recent poll conducted by University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation.
The survey, which polled groups of voters in six swing states with about 600 participants coming from Wisconsin, comes in an election year in which abortion is at the center of consequential campaigns at a federal and state level. Vice President Kamala Harris has made speaking out on reproductive rights a central component of her campaign for president, while former President Donald Trump has been inconsistent on his views about abortion. In the 8th Congressional District, OB-GYN and outspoken reproductive rights advocate Kristin Lyerly says that messaging on abortion rights will help flip the Republican-voting district blue and defeat Trump-endorsed candidate Tony Wied. Meanwhile, eight states will have abortion referendums on ballots in November, and Democratic state legislative candidates who are seeking to build a Democratic majority in the Republican-dominated state Legislature in Wisconsin have also said the issue could motivate voters to the polls.
Program director Steven Kull said the goal of the polling is to bring policy issues to the foreground during an election year.
Program director Steven Kull said the goal of the polling is to bring policy issues to the foreground during an election year. (Photo courtesy Kull)
“The election is always a key time where people really think about public policy issues, and the swing states are so central. The attitudes in those states are really quite prominent,” Kull said. “So, we thought we would… give people in the swing states a real opportunity to express their views on policy issues.”
Kull said that the bipartisan agreement on criminalizing abortion was the most “striking” result. It found that 78% of Wisconsinites — including 57% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats — do not want abortion to be criminalized before fetal viability. About 65% of Wisconsinites — including 85% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans — said they oppose criminalizing abortion at any stage of pregnancy.
“Democrats go further. The majority of Democrats oppose any criminalization but the kind of middle ground position where there’s majorities on both sides is that it should not be criminalized before fetal viability,” Kull said.
Meanwhile, support for criminalizing abortion at all stages of pregnancy was low at 13% of respondents in Wisconsin, including 25% of Republicans and 3% of Democrats.
The survey was conducted as a “policymaking simulation,” which is supposed to put participants in the shoes of policymakers. Kull said that the point is to “give people the kind of tools that a policy maker has when they come to their conclusions and this enables us to ask questions about a wider range of issues than one can in a standard poll.”
Participants were informed ahead of the questions that criminalizing abortion means prison time or fines for the doctor, the woman or both and had the opportunity to evaluate arguments for and against criminalizing abortion.
Those that chose to criminalize abortion were also asked to choose whether the doctor, the woman or both should receive fines or prison time. In Wisconsin, among those who favored criminalization, 5.8% — 10% of Republicans and 2% of Democrats — said the doctor should be punished, 3% said the woman, and 12.3% said both. About 14% said they didn’t know or refused to answer.
Kull said he was also surprised at how many participants wanted a federal law related to abortion — 73% of Wisconsinites said they favor having a federal abortion law, including 59% of Republicans and 87% of Democrats. This included the range of participants, who wanted to criminalize abortion at any stage of pregnancy and those who oppose any criminalization.
“After the Dobbs decision, there was a kind of articulation of the idea that this settles the issue, each state can decide for themselves,” Kull said. “But interestingly, that’s not how the American people feel. They want there to be a federal decision, a federal law.”
In Wisconsin, abortions ceased following the overturn of Roe v. Wade because of an 1849 criminal law, which had been widely interpreted as making almost all abortion illegal. Abortion access restarted last year after a Dane County judge ruled the law applied to feticide, not abortion. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases that ask whether the law applies to abortion and to consider whether the state Constitution protects abortion access.
Bipartisan agreement also existed on questions about access to birth control. The survey found that 84% of Wisconsinites, including 80% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats, support requiring public schools to provide education about birth control.
85% of Wisconsinites, including 81% of Republicans and 93% of Democrats, support ensuring nationwide access to birth control, by prohibiting state governments from restricting or banning birth control, and 84% of Republicans and 96% of Democrats in Wisconsin support continuing the Affordable Care Act mandate that most insurance plans cover long-term birth control, such as the pill and IUDs. About 79% of Wisconsinites support increasing funding for health care clinics so they can provide long-term birth control for free or at a low cost.
Kull noted that partisan differences were prominent on methods for trying to reduce abortions by putting more requirements on the process of getting an abortion. Wisconsinites were split on requiring doctors to show an ultrasound of the fetus to the woman before providing the abortion with 51% of Wisconsinites in favor and 49% opposed. Most of those in favor — 66% — were Republicans, while only 37% of Democrats were in favor. A 1-3 day waiting period was supported by 64% of Republicans and 39% of Democrats.
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