In the past six months, the percentage of Americans that think abortion and women's rights should be among the government's top priorities has almost tripled.
There are abortion rights demonstrators in Washington, D.C.
22% of U.S. adults named abortion or women's rights as one of the top five priorities they think the government should work on in the next year, up from 8% that said the same last time the question was
The poll was done before and after the Supreme Court's ruling.
Democrats were more likely to want the government to prioritize abortion, with 32% saying it was a priority, up from 15% in December.
42% of women who were surveyed after the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was a priority, compared to 22% who said the same in June before the ruling.
Democrats jumped from 18% to 42% after the ruling, but Republicans were the least affected with 9% listing abortion as a priority before the decision.
According to the AP, those with the most conservative abortion views were more likely to prioritize the issue.
A majority of the time. Almost all of the respondents said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
What will the government do to protect women's reproductive rights? Polls show most Americans would support a carve-out for the Senate to codify abortion rights into federal law with just a simple majority of votes. The likelihood of that happening soon remains a longshot, however, given that moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) are opposed to getting rid of the filibuster. The Department of Health and Human Services is taking steps to make it easier for states to allow medication abortion, as well as directing its civil rights office to protect the rights of abortion patients. Allowing abortions on federal land in states where the procedure is banned and expanding the Supreme Court were both shot down by the White House. At the state level, more Democratic leaders have taken steps to shore up access in recent days: New York lawmakers are moving forward with a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, for instance.
Last week, the Supreme Court upended abortion rights nationwide, declaring the landmark 1973 ruling "egregiously wrong" and giving states the ability to completely outlaw the procedure. Many states have already banned abortion as a result and more are expected to follow, though some of those bans have now been blocked in state courts. The monumental ruling and its wide-reaching effects has led many Democrats to pressure the Biden administration to do more to protect abortion rights, with 34 of them writing a letter to the president on Saturday urging him to use the full force of the federal government.
Women's rights grow as priorities.
The health secretary says that the Biden administration will use medication abortion to help protect abortion rights.
The Senate should break the cloture rule to codify abortion rights into law.
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