Among a cross-sectional group of women of reproductive age in Georgia, 76% supported the legality of abortion access at six weeks and 60% supported it at 14 weeks, according to a new study published November 12, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Stephanie Eick of Emory University, U.S. The current state policy, effective since July 2022, limits abortion to six weeks.
Abortion, defined as a medical intervention that terminates a pregnancy, is one of the most consistently debated legislative issues in the United States, and policies surrounding the specifications and limitations of abortion care vary by state.
In the new study, researchers surveyed 177 English-speaking women aged 18-40 living in Georgia about their views on abortion generally and at specific gestational ages (6, 14, and 24 weeks). Participants were recruited using targeted social media ads, and were also asked about their political orientation, religious characteristics, geographic location, and demographic factors.
The researchers found that most participants (84%) supported the legality of abortion in all or most cases generally. However, that support decreased for specific gestational ages: 76% supported abortion at 6 weeks, 60% at 14 weeks, and 31% at 24 weeks. Women identifying as conservative or moderates had 10 times higher odds of thinking abortion should be generally illegal compared to liberals. Those who attended weekly religious services had 7 times higher odds of thinking abortion should be illegal and those residing outside the Atlanta metro area had 6 times higher odds of thinking abortion should be illegal or that it depends. Notably, these differences between groups diminished as pregnancy progressed, with more consensus emerging around 24 weeks (typical age of fetal viability).
The study was limited by a relatively small sample size, and by possible sample selection bias leading to a heavily liberal and Atlanta-based study population: this challenges the generalizability of the results. However, the authors conclude that most women in the sample generally support abortion access. The study did not specifically ask how participants felt regarding the state's current policy of restricting abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy.
The authors add: "In this study of reproductive age women in Georgia, we found that opinions regarding whether abortion should be legal were nuanced. While most participants in our study generally supported abortion access, fewer participants supported abortion access after 24 weeks gestation (2nd trimester). It should also be noted the generalizability of our study is limited by recruiting participants using social media, and that most participants lived in metropolitan Atlanta."
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: http://plos.io/47nzk3R
Citation: Chandler M, Darville JA, Eick SM (2025) Determinants of abortion views among reproductive age women in Georgia 2023–2024. PLoS One 20(11): e0335370. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0335370
Author countries: U.S.
Funding: This work was funded by the JPB Environmental Health Fellowship Program granted by The JPB Foundation and managed by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
