Voters across the political spectrum believe a new Supreme Court justice should uphold the constitutional right to abortion, a new survey commissioned by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund found.

The survey found that a majority of voters — 75 percent — believe Justice Anthony Kennedy’s replacement on the Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade, including 87 percent of Democrats, 86 percent of Independents, and 54 percent of Republicans. A majority of voters of all political stripes — 91 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of Independents, and 60 percent of Republicans — said it was important to them personally that a new Supreme Court justice uphold abortion rights.

That support for abortion extends to senators who vote for nominees who would uphold Roe. According to the survey, voters are twice as likely to support senators who would vote for a nominee who would uphold Roe and twice as likely to support candidates for elected office who support the right to an abortion.

Even Republicans are six points more likely to support a senator who backs judicial nominees who would uphold Roe, than a senator who does not.


“It’s crystal clear that people across the country want a Justice who will uphold their life-saving legal protections,” Fatima Goss Graves, the president and CEO of National Women’s Law Center Action Fund said in a release. “Every day we hear from people who fear that their birth control or coverage of pre-existing conditions will be taken away, as well as their right to abortion. The polling results echo these concerns. Voters know what’s at stake with this nomination.”

Half of all respondents said they believe it’s likely President Trump’s latest Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, will overturn Roe if confirmed; 87 percent of voters said they think there is at least a 50 percent chance that Kavanaugh will overturn Roe should he join the high court.

Kavanaugh — and Trump — have certainly given them reason to think as much.

During the 2016 election, Trump vowed to appoint justices who would overturn Roe, and while on the D.C. circuit court, Kavanaugh dissented from the majority opinion in Garza v. Hargan, a case in which the majority ruled that the Trump administration could not hold undocumented teenagers in prison to keep them from getting abortions.


Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a release that the survey was proof the Senate “must listen to their constituents and reject Kavanaugh.”

“This poll shows that people are deeply concerned about a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, and they’re worried what Kavanaugh would do,” she said. “We’re seeing this in poll after poll and in grassroots momentum nationwide…. People know their rights and freedoms are on the line.”

The survey included responses from 2,438 likely voters with a margin of error of +/- two percent.