Moderate White Women & Abortion in 2024
While abortion was top of mind for many women (and certainly many Galvanize Action partners and supporters) this year, reproductive freedom was not the most important issue to the majority of the moderate white women we sought to connect with. Abortion is an important issue, especially for certain segments of Galvanize Action’s audience, but not the only issue that influences their political attitudes and civic behaviors.
In our 2024 tracking survey, abortion held steady as the top issue for about 10% of our audience, making it about the fourth-most-commonly-selected vote choice issue behind the economy, preserving democracy, and immigration.
Want a deeper dive on this survey? Download research memos here.
Interestingly, Galvanize Action did see some increased salience around considering a candidate’s stance on abortion. So while abortion itself may not be top of mind for many moderate women, most say it factors into their civic choices, including presidential vote choice.
As you can see to the right, 82% of moderate white women were at least partially considering a candidate’s stance on abortion. Read more in the August 2024 Audience Understanding Survey this is from.
Letting the research lead the way, Galvanize Action’s 2024 messaging on abortion focused on raising the salience of legal restrictions on reproductive freedoms. Our award-winning research team tested 18 messages and 19 ads to this effect, ultimately deploying the most effective one: “Roe v Wade.”
“Roe v Wade” was one of the videos taken from an intergenerational discussion with moderate white women in Pennsylvania. We brought women of all ages together to talk about life before and after Roe. By showing how abortion rights affect women across generations, and by drawing parallels between then and now, the ad helps to raise issue saliency and inspire civic action.
This ad made over 28 MILLION impressions this year! It moved moderate white women to agree that “any law that restricts why and when someone can have an abortion is unfair” by nine percentage points, and white women overall by seven percentage points. Viewers who liked this message enough to click through to the Galvanize Action website were treated to bonus clips from the same conversation. You can watch those videos here.
Abortion rights were directly on the ballot in a record ten states this year, and reproductive freedom won out in seven of those ballot measures. Here’s some outstanding news for abortion rights in states where Galvanize Action ran reproductive freedom ads this year:
| Arizona | Montana | Nevada |
| Proposition 139 passed and 61.6% voted yes! This means the state Constitution will establish a right to abortion prior to viability. | Constitutional Amendment 128 passed with 57.8% of the vote! This will prohibit the government from punishing those who perform or receive abortions and amend the state Constitution. | Question 6 passed with 64.4% of the vote. It may amend the state Constitution to protect abortion, but it won’t take effect automatically. |
In other good news, reproductive freedom measures also passed in Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, and New York this year. That’s seven new measures that will protect the reproductive rights of MILLIONS of Americans for years to come. Read details about the abortion rights, protections from pregnancy discrimination, and access to public abortion funding that millions of Americans just secured in the New York Times’ excellent summary.
For even more research about moderate white women and abortion, take a look at our most recent reproductive freedom survey.
