Eve Jamilkowski

With the Dodds Supreme Court decision which led to the overturn of Roe V. Wade, many voters are now making decisions based on candidates’ positions on the hot-button topic.

A POLITICO-Harvard survey asked 1,815 registered voters to note down which issues were “extremely important” in their upcoming congressional vote. Abortion ranked 4th, with 44% of all surveyed saying it is “extremely important.” While it polled much higher than in 2020 or 2018, it still fell below inflation (51%), the economy and jobs (49%), and guns (46%). “Overall, the survey offers good news for Democrats, because the concerns that animate Republican-leaning voters — like gas prices and inflation – may abate in the coming months while issues like abortion and gun policies will not be settled in November,” said Robert Blendon, a retired Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professor of health policy and political analysis.

States are also seeing more women voters. Already, since Roe V. Wade was overturned, women have out-registered men by 15%+ in some states. The POLITICO poll showed a gender gap when it came to the topic of abortion: more than half of surveyed women said it was “extremely important” in who they’ll vote for, in contrast to 36% of men. 

According to Forbes, many Americans already opposed harsh abortion restrictions before Roe was even overturned, another poll weighing in that among 1,304 voters, 49% are going to the polls based on the contents of the draft opinion that was leaked in the spring.