Republican lawmakers fought to keep the 1864 abortion ban. Even GOP voters thought it was awful.

A protestor holds a sign at an April 14, 2024, protest in favor of reproductive rights and abortion access in Scottsdale. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror

When all but five Republican legislators fought tooth and nail to protect a near-total abortion ban written while Abraham Lincoln was still president, it was patently obvious that they weren’t doing the bidding of Arizonans, who broadly are supportive of abortion rights and access to other reproductive health care.

Fighting to keep that law on the books also puts them at loggerheads with most Arizona Republican voters, according to new polling.

In fact, 60% of Arizona Republican voters in a new poll from CBS News and YouGov say that 1864 law should have been repealed. And in a slightly larger pool of voters who identify as “conservative,” 56% said the law needed to be scrapped.

Just 28% of the 1,200 or so voters surveyed think that law, which was written at a time when doctors didn’t even understand how pregnancies happened, should have been left in place. 

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

While opposing abortion has become orthodoxy over the past 50 years for Republican candidates and activists, it absolutely isn’t for rank-and-file GOP voters — something the CBS/YouGov polling lays bare.

For instance, more than 1 in 3 Republican voters think the U.S. Supreme Court got it wrong when it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, as do more than 1 in 4 conservative voters.

Ultimately, it might be that GOP support for reproductive rights that enshrines abortion access in the Arizona Constitution: A plurality of Republicans, 43%, said they would vote in favor of the Arizona Abortion Access Act if the election were today. Fewer than 40% of Republicans said they opposed giving Arizonans a constitutional right to abortion. 

Overall, two-thirds of Arizona voters — 65% of those polled — say they’re ready to vote for the ballot initiative, which appears poised to easily qualify for the November election.

As one Republican gentleman told us, he doesn’t want the government telling him what to do with his guns, what vaccines to get or what women should do with their bodies.

– Dawn Penich, spokeswoman for Arizona for Abortion Access

None of that surprises Dawn Penich, the spokeswoman for the Arizona for Abortion Access campaign hoping to put the constitutional amendment before voters. Polling has long shown that Arizonans support abortion access, but she said that the ballot measure campaign has driven home just how the issue crosses partisan lines.

“We run into those Republicans all the time,” she said, explaining that, for many, the issue is driven by a commitment to small government and “getting the government out of our personal spaces.”

“As one Republican gentleman told us, he doesn’t want the government telling him what to do with his guns, what vaccines to get or what women should do with their bodies,” Penich said.

Women and younger voters (those of us born between 1980 and 2006) see the constitutional amendment is critical for ensuring reproductive rights don’t get stripped away. More than two-thirds of those younger voters and 64% of women say that women’s access to reproductive health care will get harder if the constitution isn’t amended. 

If Democrats hope to hold Arizona for Joe Biden — polling so far generally shows him trailing by about four or five points here, but with the gap narrowing — and win down-ballot races, including control of the state legislature, they need to turn that drive to protect abortion into votes for Democratic candidates.

The CBS/YouGov poll sheds some light on just how that could happen. For starters, women and younger voters are furious at the Supreme Court’s decision to strip away the constitutional right to abortion that Americans had for nearly 50 years: 44% of Arizona women and 40% of voters under the age of 45 say they are “angry” about that ruling.

Who do they hold responsible? Donald Trump, who appointed the conservative supermajority to the court. More than 2 in 5 women — 42% of them — and 45% of under-45 voters say Trump should be blamed for Roe being overturned, demonstrably more than men (just 36%) or older voters (37% in Gen X and 34% among Boomers and older). 

And that anger about abortion is pushing women and younger voters to the polls this year: 48% percent of women and 54% of Millenial and Gen Z voters say abortion is making them more motivated to vote in November. Likewise, 54% of Latino voters say they’re more eager to cast a ballot this year because of what’s happened on abortion since 2022.

The biggest reason for that is these are the same demographic groups who believe — correctly, as Trump’s allies have made frighteningly clear — that a second Trump administration will lead to a national ban on abortion. A plurality of young voters (42%) think Trump will pursue some kind of nationwide effort to end abortion, compared to just 29% of Gen X and 26% of older voters. Likewise, 40% of Latino voters say the same thing, a stark difference to white voters, among whom just 30% think Trump will work on a nationwide ban.

Recent history shows just how powerful abortion rights can be for Democratic candidates. We saw it in the 2022 midterms, when a predicted “red wave” was little more than a puddle and Democrats across the board — including in Arizona, where Democrats won all the top statewide offices — won races that many thought were out of reach. That has continued into 2023 and 2024, where Democrats have won elections, even in red districts in red states, on the strength of abortion rights.

DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST

The post Republican lawmakers fought to keep the 1864 abortion ban. Even GOP voters thought it was awful. appeared first on Arizona Mirror.