Poll: Majority of Women Say It's Too Easy to Get an Abortion

Nearly half (48%) of U.S. voters continue to believe that an abortion is too easy to obtain in this country, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Fifteen percent (15%) say it’s too hard to get an abortion in America, and 23% think the level of difficulty is about right. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure.

This is in line with findings on this question in surveys for over four years now.

Women (53%) feel more strongly than men (42%) that abortions are too easy to get.

Unchanged over the years is the belief held by 54% that abortion is morally wrong most of the time. Thirty-two percent (32%) disagree, and 14% more are undecided.

Again, 58% of women believe that abortion is morally wrong in most cases, compared to 49% of men.

Forty-nine percent (49%) of all voters describe themselves as pro-choice, while 43% say they are pro-life. Ninety-one percent (91%) of pro-life voters say abortion is morally wrong most of the time, but 61% of those who are pro-choice do not share that view.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on August 11-12, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95%level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of voters say abortion is at least somewhat important as an issue in terms of how they will vote in November, with 33% who say it is Very Important. Thirty-seven percent (37%) say it’s not very or not at all important to them as a voting issue.

But in terms of overall voter interest, abortion ranks well below 10 other issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports including the economy, government ethics and immigration.

Pro-life voters, however, are twice as likely as those who are pro-choice to say abortion as an issue is important to how they vote this fall.

Forty percent (40%) of voters trust Democrats more when it comes to the abortion issue, while 37% trust Republicans more. Twenty-three percent (23%) aren’t sure.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of pro-choice voters trust Democrats more. Sixty-six percent (66%) of those who are pro-life have more confidence in the GOP.