Research Memo: Engaging Voters on Abortion Access, 2016

From 2015 – 2017, NIRH has conducted qualitative and quantitative research — including focus groups in ten states across the country and two nationwide polls — to harness voters’ latent support for abortion access.

This research found that voters are not aware of the trend of anti-abortion restrictions, and learning the details of those restrictions evokes significant motivation and anger to act.

Rather than erecting new roadblocks, as states have been in recent years, the public wants a fundamental shift to supporting a woman who has decided to have an abortion.

In January 2016, we commissioned PerryUndem Research/Communication to conduct a national survey to measure what we had been hearing in focus groups across the country. We found that people don’t want abortion to be a difficult or negative experience for a woman. Instead, they support affirmative approaches that make it more supportive, respectful, affordable, and without embarrassment, pressure, or shame.