Women Care Deeply About Abortion in the Midterms, Poll Finds. Men, Not So Much.

Half of women between the ages of 18 and 29 say abortion will matter to them in the midterms—but less than a quarter of men say the same, according to a new VICE News/YouGov poll commissioned by VICE News.

Forty-six percent of all women said that when thinking about the next election, abortion was an “important issue” for them, according to the poll conducted in mid-October, four months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But just 30 percent of all men said the same.

Although men and women differed on the importance of several issues, including guns and inflation, no other issue opened up such a wide gap. 

Historically, abortion tends to be an afterthought for most voters. But at least 13 states have banned abortion since the Supreme Court’s decision, although legal battles over those bans can make abortion access complicated. The midterms will be key to determining just how many states will be added to that tally. In some states, like Michigan and Kentucky, voters are being asked to decide directly on the constitutional status of abortion rights, while in others, Democrats need to hold onto their seats or gain some if they want to fend off further abortion restrictions.

In the YouGov poll, women across all ages say they’re more concerned about abortion than men in their age groups. 

These findings in this poll, which looked at the responses from 3,000 U.S. adults, are consistent with other polling in recent months showing women have consistently said they cared more about abortion than men. In a poll published in August, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 71 percent of women disapproved of the Supreme Court overturning Roe. In contrast, 58 percent of men said the same.

In the VICE News-commissioned YouGov poll, 54 percent of women said they disapproved of the decision. Forty-five percent of men agreed—but 44 percent said they approved of it, compared to just 29 percent of women.

Women’s voter registration and political activism is also reportedly surging in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision. But the YouGov poll found that although 38 percent of women said the decision would make them “much more likely” or “somewhat more likely” to vote in the midterms, 42 percent said it made no change on their decision on whether to vote.

Half of men said it made no difference in their decision on whether to vote. Only 30 percent said it made them more likely to.