New Fox News Poll Indicates Arizona and Nevada Abortion-Rights Ballot Measures Are Really Popular

Fox News released a new poll of swing states, and the headline is not that the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is a tossup in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, but of Fox News’ polling of abortion rights measures.

As Susan Rinkunas detailed for Jezebel, there are a lot of abortion rights measures coming up for a vote in November. Arizona’s “Proposition 139 would protect access to abortion up to fetal viability, or when necessary to protect the patient’s health. (Abortion is currently banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy.)” And Nevada’s “Question 6 would codify the right to abortion up to fetal viability in the state constitution, but has to pass in both 2024 and 2026 in order to take effect. (Abortion is banned after viability.)”

According to this Fox News poll, those two initiatives will pass easily this year, with three-quarters of voters in their surveys saying they will vote in favor of them, including half of Republicans in Arizona and 54 percent of Republicans in Nevada. As Fox News notes, “Among the only ones against the initiatives are self-defined ‘very’ conservative” responders.

Missouri will also vote on expanding abortion rights, as Jezebel notes that its “Amendment 3 would codify the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including abortion until viability, birth control, and miscarriage care. (Abortion is banned in almost all circumstances.)” A SLU/YouGov poll indicates that Amendment 3 is also extremely popular, with 52 percent saying they will vote for it versus just 34 percent against.

While Fox News is the world’s premier propaganda TV network, their polling outlet has a reputation of being one of the best pollsters in America. VoteHub.us gives them an A rating, and another solid pollster in YouGov (a B+ rating from VoteHub.us) continues this trend in Missouri. Donald Trump has already said he may get “killed” on abortion, which is another indication that this dynamic exists outside of just a couple polls and is a real theme across all polling this year.

And it’s not an issue on the periphery of voters’ minds either. The Fox News poll indicates that protecting abortion rights is a chief concern for voters in these battleground states. The number one issue is the economy (41 percent), then immigration (14 percent) then abortion (13 percent).

It is a brand-new world in the politics of abortion. For most of the 20th and 21st century, Democrats played defense and let Republicans set the agenda in their half-century-long scheme to overturn a woman’s right to choose. Looking at polling makes it pretty clear that this new development has nothing to do with the Democratic Party affecting change, and everything to do with the Supreme Court overturning Roe and making people realize that just because they vote blue no matter who does not mean that their rights are automatically protected. Effective politics is about being loyal to policy, not politicians, and thanks to this shift in the electorate’s thinking about abortion and abortion rights groups’ ability to get these measures on the ballot, we may find ourselves on the cusp of passing a slew of legislation to protect a woman’s right to choose.