More Democrat voters ranked “protecting abortion rights” as a high-priority government issue in a new Associated Press poll published this week.
The Hill reports the poll found 13 percent of Democrats mentioned abortion or reproductive rights as one of the top five issues that they want the government to address, a 10-percent increase from 2020 polling.
While abortion was not Democrat voters’ top priority – the economy, health care and gun control ranked the highest – the increase is significant.
Jennifer Benz, deputy director of the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, said polls typically show stronger interest in the abortion issue from pro-life Republican voters.
Benz pointed to polls going back to the 1980s that “regularly found that opponents of abortion had greater strength of attitudes and considered the issue important to them personally more than pro-choice people.”
One possible reason for the shift is that the abortion issue has been in the news more lately because of the Texas heartbeat law and the U.S. Supreme Court considering a major challenge to Roe v. Wade out of Mississippi. The mainstream media, including traditionally balanced news outlets like the Associated Press, also have become even more biased and openly pro-abortion in their reports, referring to the killing of unborn babies in abortions as “abortion care” and casting doubt on the fact that an unborn baby has a detectable heartbeat by about six weeks of pregnancy.
Some abortion activists view the new poll as a sign of hope amid dismal predictions and low polling for pro-abortion Democrats ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.