Sixty-two percent of Maryland voters supported a ballot referendum — Question 6 —that codified abortion access in the state constitution on November 3, 1992. Thirty-eight percent of voters opposed.
That was almost 30 years ago. The most recent Goucher College Poll — conducted in mid-October after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the legality of a law in Texas that, among other provisions, bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy —provides some insight on what Marylanders think about the legality of abortion now.
Using an identical question frequently included in Gallup’s nationwide polling on abortion, Marylanders were asked whether they thought abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances.
The overall results suggest that Marylanders are somewhat more supportive of the legal access to abortion than they were in the early-1990’s.
Eighty-eight percent of residents want abortion to be legal in at least some circumstances, and just 10 percent think abortion should be illegal in all cases. The attitudes among the 88 percent who support legal access are evenly divided: 44 percent want abortion to be legal in all circumstances, and 44 percent think it should be legal only under certain circumstances.
Like most attitudes toward policy issues, the difference is in the details and the demographics. The table below includes those results by key demographics.
Progressives and Democrats are the most supportive of abortion access under any circumstance. In contrast, conservatives and Republicans are more likely to support no abortion access or access only under some circumstances. There is also a divide across gender and levels of education. Female Marylanders and college graduates are more supportive of the right to have an abortion under any circumstances than their male counterparts and those without a college degree.
The attitudes of Marylanders captured by the Goucher College Poll follow nationwide trends. Gallup has consistently found that most Americans support legal access to abortion under varying circumstances since the mid-1970’s. Recent work by Pew Research Center finds that about 6-in-10 U.S. adults support some form of legal access to abortion.
Moreover, polling done by these organizations and other public polls finds that abortion continues to be among the most politically polarizing and partisan issues. Pew finds that only about a third of Republicans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases compared to 80 percent of Democrats. Thus, the reason why access to abortion will continue to earn strong statewide support is simple: Maryland is one of the most heavily Democratic states in the country.
To close, a single question on the legality of abortion certainly doesn’t capture the full range of attitudes held by state residents. But regardless of the nuances in opinion or even what happens regarding Roe vs. Wade (perhaps in the coming months), the legal right to have an abortion will remain protected in Maryland by state law and supported by public opinion.
Stella Krajick and Kiyah Venable are political science majors and research assistants at the Sarah T. Hughes Center for Politics at Goucher College.
