63 percent now say abortion pill should be available with prescription: Gallup

Almost two thirds of Americans say they support keeping the FDA-approved abortion pill available to patients with a prescription, a new Gallup poll shows. 

The new survey, conducted May 1-24, showed 63 percent favor allowing mifepristone, the abortion pill, available as a prescription drug, while 35 percent of respondents said they were opposed. 

The last time the issue was under such public scrutiny, Gallup said, was in late 2000, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug. At the time, 50 percent of Americans supported the decision and 44 percent were opposed. Earlier that year, according to Gallup, 47 percent opposed making the pill available by prescription, while 39 percent favored it. 

The new study comes as the issue of abortion pill availability has come back into the public eye after a federal judge in Texas reversed the FDA approval. That decision was quickly appealed. The U.S. Supreme Court has frozen the decision, allowing the pill to remain available by prescription as the appeals process played out. 

Mifepristone is a medication commonly prescribed in the early stages of pregnancy, up until 10 weeks, when the fetus is about 1 or 1.2 inches — or about the size of a green olive, according to WebMD.

A study by Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, published a study in 2022 that showed medication abortion accounted for more than half of all abortions in the United States in 2020. It accounted for 54 percent of all abortions and 53 percent of facility-based abortions.

In the recent Gallup poll measuring views on abortion pill access, respondents were split along partisan lines, more so than by gender or age.

Keeping mifepristone available by prescription found support among 86 percent of Democrats, 41 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of independents. Sixty percent of men and 64 percent of women supported keeping the pill available. Support by age varied little by group – with 68 percent of adults ages 18-34 in favor, 62 percent of adults ages 35-54 in favor, and 61 percent of adults ages 55 and older in favor. 

In the news release of the study, Gallup reported that Americans identified as “pro-choice” at historically high rates. About the same percentage of respondents who favor having mifepristone available by prescription — 63 percent — also say they favor legal abortion in the first trimester and say they oppose abortion bans once a heartbeat is detected. 

“Support for making mifepristone available coincides with elevated support for women’s access to reproductive health choices since the overturn of the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision,” the report read. “These data also coincide with Americans identifying as pro-choice at a historically elevated rate, likely a reaction to the Dobbs decision and coinciding with a period when the abortion issue is back at the center of U.S. politics in a way it hasn’t been for decades.”