- Most women think that US leaders are "out of touch" regarding abortion, a new poll found.
- Liberals and conservatives were both overwhelmingly unsatisfied with how the government addresses abortion.
Women from across the political spectrum said they think American leaders are "out of touch" on the issue of abortion access, according to an Insider/Morning Consult poll.
This includes both liberal women wishing fewer restrictions be placed on abortion and conservative women who don't think government has done enough to curb the procedure.
Nearly seven in 10 women polled said the Supreme Court was either "very" or "somewhat out of touch" regarding their needs for abortion access including 55% of Republican women, 64% of independent women, and 72% of Democratic women.
And a solid majority of women surveyed as a part of Insider's "Red, White, and Gray" project noted that also Congress, specifically, doesn't represent their interests on abortion.
Abortion rights have risen to the forefront of American politics after the Supreme Court in June overturned federal abortion rights enshrined in the high court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Individual states may now pass laws that significantly restrict or effectively outlaw abortion, meaning one state's rules for abortion may be markedly different than another's rules.
Prior to the Supreme Court's decision, Democrats in both the House and Senate attempted to codify national access to an abortion. But Democrats in the Senate failed to gain the support of enough Republicans — and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin — to overcome a Republican-led filibuster, which requires 60 affirmative votes to advance a bill.
Separately, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham unveiled a bill in September banning abortions at 15 weeks of gestation to lukewarm support from his Republican colleagues. The bill appears to be headed for defeat.
The survey, which polled participants before Graham announced his bill, indicated that women on both the right and left thought that Congress failed to represent their needs on abortion access. Seven in 10 women surveyed said that Congress was either "very" or "somewhat" out of touch on abortion, with nearly three-fourths of independent women, and two-thirds of Republican women, saying the same.
Following the Supreme Court's ruling in June, President Joe Biden issued several executive orders protecting access to abortion drugs and other reproductive health-related matters, chastising the nation's highest court in the process.
"We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy," Biden said in July.
In spite of Biden and the rest of the executive branch's push for greater access to abortion, 56% of women polled said the executive branch — which includes the White House and federal government agencies — was still "out of touch" on abortion.
Independent and Republican-leaning women were much likelier to say the executive branch was out of touch regarding abortion, with 65% of Republican women and 64% of independent women saying it didn't represent their needs.
That number dropped to 44% among Democratic-identified women.
The Insider/Morning Consult survey was conducted from September 8 through September 10, and had 2,210 respondents and a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points.