October 12, 2022

Poll shows majority of NM voters support abortion rights

New Mexico voters indicated that they support abortion rights, including New Mexico’s repeal of an antiquated abortion law. In a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling for NM Political Report, 55 percent of likely voters said they supported the repeal of the law that allowed abortion to remain legal in New Mexico despite the U.S. […]

Matthew Reichbach

New Mexico voters indicated that they support abortion rights, including New Mexico’s repeal of an antiquated abortion law.

In a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling for NM Political Report, 55 percent of likely voters said they supported the repeal of the law that allowed abortion to remain legal in New Mexico despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision this summer that overturned Roe v. Wade. Another 33 percent said they opposed it and 11 percent said that they were not sure.

This is similar to the results in June, before the Supreme Court decided Dobbs. In that poll, 53 percent said they would support such a repeal and 36 percent said they would oppose it.

Overall, 37 percent said abortion should always be legal and 15 percent said abortion should be legal most of the time. Meanwhile, 32 percent said abortion should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life, while just 8 percent said abortion should be illegal without any exceptions.

The June poll showed 30 percent said it should alway be legal and 35 percent said legal with limitations. And 29 percent said it should be illecal except for cases of incest or rape, while just 13 percent said it should always be illegal.

A virtual equal amount of women and men, 55 percent, said they support the repeal of the anti-abortion law, while 34 percent of women opposed and 33 percent of men opposed.

Overall views of abortion were also similar among genders, with 39 percent of women saying it should always be legal compared to 35 percent of men, 13 percent of women said it should be legal most of the time compared to 17 percent of men, 30 percent of women said it should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest and to save the mother’s life compared to 34 percent of men and 12 percent of women said abortion should always be illegal compared to 4 percent of men.

The poll of 806 likely voters was conducted by Public Policy Polling on Oct. 6 and 7 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 points. Public Policy Polling called landlines and text messaged those without landlines. Not all percentages on questions add up to 100 percent because of rounding.