Most Americans, including Democrats and independents, want to change a federal government policy allowing abortion pills to be mailed with impunity throughout the United States, according to polling obtained by The Daily Wire.
Over two-thirds (67%) of Americans surveyed said they would support the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reinstating an in-person doctor visit requirement for accessing an abortion pill via the mail, polling from CRC Research showed. That included 72% of Republicans, 68% of independents, and 63% of Democrats. About 27% of Americans opposed reinstating the in-person requirement.
Pro-life leaders, who have blamed the increasing abortion rates across the country on mail-order abortions, touted the polling as a reason for the FDA to revoke the Biden-era policy allowing pills to be shipped without a doctor’s visit.
“It’s overwhelmingly clear that Americans support reinstating the in-person dispensing requirement to protect women taking mifepristone,” Christina Francis, the CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs, told The Daily Wire. “As physicians caring for women and babies every day, we see the devastating impact that the FDA’s relaxed standards are having on women’s health and safety.”
CRC Research.
The polling was conducted for the 85 Fund by CRC Research from March 12-18 and sampled 1600 likely voters randomly selected from opt-in panel participants. Those surveyed were 33% Republican, 34% independent, and 32% of Democrats, with 31% identifying as pro-life, 39% as pro-choice, and 27% as somewhere in between.
Seventy percent of those surveyed also said they would support the FDA making an in-person medical evaluation required before and after taking an abortion pill, while 62% said they were more likely to support an in-person requirement after learning that some men were coercing women into having abortions. Nearly half of Americans (49%) said they would be less likely to support their representative if they supported abortion pills being shipped without a medical evaluation.
CRC Research.
The Trump administration has promised to conduct a safety study of the abortion drug, but pro-life advocates have grown impatient. They say the allowance of mail-order abortion pills allows women and leftist activists to ship pills into states where medication abortion is technically illegal. The FDA has said that reimposing the in-person requirement would interfere with the ongoing safety study.
A Georgia woman was recently charged after investigators said she took eight abortion pills before her baby was delivered alive and survived for about an hour. “I know my infant is suffering, because I am the one who did the abortion. I want her to die,” the woman allegedly told nurses at the hospital.
Tens of thousands of abortions have been carried out in states like Texas and Tennessee with pills shipped in by activists and abortion doctors. Pro-life groups say the FDA policy allowing pills to be shipped without the in-person requirement effectively nullifies state laws.
“Voters could not be speaking any more clearly on abortion drugs flooding the mail, driving up abortion rates and undermining protections for women and children,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser told The Daily Wire. “They recognize this is an urgent public health and safety crisis that demands a return to common sense, like in-person doctor visits that were required under the first Trump administration.”
Previous polling has found similar results, including one from Cygnal that found large majorities of Republican primary voters said they would be less enthusiastic to vote in the midterm elections if GOP leaders shy away from pro-life policies
“A broad consensus exists around the dangers of mail-order abortion drugs and the risks they pose to women’s health and safety,” said David Bereit, the executive director of the Life Leadership Conference. “A majority of Americans, across the political spectrum, express serious concern that eliminating in-person medical oversight increases the likelihood of complications, coercion, and undetected abuse.”