By Gabriella Borter and Jason Lang

WASHINGTON: A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found Americans are divided on whether women should see a doctor in person before taking abortion pills. Supreme Court It is being considered whether to reimpose that ban drug abortion,

But broad bipartisan majorities oppose the idea of allowing states that ban abortion to block access to the procedure in certain areas. emergency cases When it is required to protect the health of the mother, in another case before the court.

The conclusion comes as the court prepares to rule on its highest-profile abortion cases since 2022, when the justices overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a national right to abortion.

Nearly 50 percent of respondents to the May 7-14 survey said they support requiring an in-person visit to a doctor to get abortion medication, while 33 percent said they oppose that rule. Seventeen percent said they were unsure.

About 67 percent of Republican respondents and 37 percent of Democrats said they were in favor of requiring in-person delivery. mifepristone,

The court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, is expected to rule by the end of June in a case challenging access to mifepristone, a drug that is half of a two-part medication regimen used to induce abortion in early pregnancies. .

The case before the court, which was brought by anti-abortion groups and doctors, challenges the Food and Drug Administration for allowing medication abortion up to 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven weeks and allowing mail delivery of the medication without seeing the patient first. gives. Doctor in person. During arguments in March, the justices appeared skeptical that the groups that had brought the case had the necessary legal standing to pursue it.

While respondents were divided on whether to tighten abortion pill regulations, a wide majority opposed the idea behind Idaho’s challenge to the federal law, known as . emergency medical treatment and the Labor Act, or EMTALA, which requires states to allow patients to have abortions in emergency cases.

Nearly 77 percent of respondents, including 86 percent of Democrats and 77 percent of Republicans, said they support requiring states with strict abortion restrictions to allow abortion if necessary to protect the health of the pregnant patient. medical emergency, The court’s decision in that case is also expected by the end of June.

Majorities in both parties also opposed the idea of state governments tracking pregnancies to allow them to take action if pregnancies end in violation of state law. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently told Time magazine that he would not stop states from monitoring pregnancies.

Since the court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe, 16 states have banned abortion in all or most cases and medication abortion has become the most common method of terminating pregnancies, now accounting for more than 60 percent of U.S. abortions. Is responsible for.

Overall, the share of Americans who support abortion rights There has been an increase in the last decade. About 57 percent of respondents in the latest Reuters/Ipsos survey said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, up from 46 percent in Reuters/Ipsos surveys conducted in 2014. About 31 percent of respondents in the latest survey said. Must be illegal in most or all cases, down from 43 percent in the 2014 elections. About one in 10 respondents consistently say they are not sure.

The latest survey collected responses from 3,934 American adults across the country in an online survey conducted May 7-14. It had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points for all respondents and about 3 points for Republicans and Democrats.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter and Jason Lang; Editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)