World News | AP-NORC Poll: Most Say Restrict Abortion After 1st Trimester

New York, Jun 25 (AP) A solid majority of Americans believe most abortions should be legal in the first three months of a woman's pregnancy, but most say the procedure should usually be illegal in the second and third trimesters, according to a new poll.

The poll comes just weeks after the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving a currently blocked Mississippi law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, two weeks into the second trimester.

If the high court upholds the law, it would be the first time since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision confirming a woman's right to abortion that a state would be allowed to ban abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb.

The new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 61 per cent of Americans say abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances in the first trimester of a pregnancy. However, 65 per cent said abortion should usually be illegal in the second trimester, and 80 per cent said that about the third trimester.

Still, the poll finds many Americans believe that the procedure should be allowable under at least some circumstances even during the second or third trimesters.

For abortions during the second trimester, 34 per cent say they should usually or always be legal, and another 30 per cent say they should be illegal in most but not all cases. In the third trimester, 19 per cent think most or all abortions should be legal, and another 26 per cent say they should be illegal only in most cases.

Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches social research at Catholic University of America, predicted the findings regarding second- and third-trimester abortions will be useful to the anti-abortion movement.

“This helps counter the narrative that the abortion policy outcome established by the Roe v. Wade decision enjoys substantial public support,” he said.

David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, said the findings suggest that abortion rights advocates are “way out of the public mainstream” to the extent that they support abortion access even late in pregnancy.

But Dr. Daniel Grossman, an abortion rights advocate and reproductive health expert at the University of California, San Francisco, cited research showing that Americans viewed second-trimester abortions more empathetically when told about some of the reasons why women seek them.

These include time-consuming difficulties making arrangements with an abortion clinic and learning during the second trimester that the fetus would die or have severe disabilities due to abnormalities, Grossman said.

“More work needs to be done to elevate the voices of people who have had abortions and who want to share their stories to help people understand the many reasons why this medical care is so necessary,” he said via email.

Majorities of Americans — Republicans and Democrats alike — think a pregnant woman should be able to obtain a legal abortion if her life is seriously endangered, if the pregnancy results from rape or incest or if the child would be born with a life-threatening illness. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)