While the Supreme Court considers a case that could further restrict abortions in the United States, the vast majority of Americans support medication abortion, according to a poll released Friday.

Seventy-two percent of participants in the Axios Axios-Ipsos survey — including 51% of Republicans — said they are in favor of women obtaining abortions pills from their doctors or clinics.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a lawsuit that seeks to roll back Food and Drug Administration authorizations made in 2016 and later for the drug mifepristone.

A group of doctors and other medical professionals argue the FDA did not consider safety data when it extended the time frame for taking mifepristone from seven weeks of pregnancy to 10 weeks, allowed medical professionals other than doctors to prescribe the drug and dispensed of a requirement for an in-person medical visit, opening the door for it to be mailed directly to patients.

The FDA and mifepristone maker Danco Laboratories insist the regulator did its homework and that that the pill is safe and highly effective. The FDA also argues the plaintiffs do not have the legal standing to file the lawsuit because they have not been harmed by the FDA changes and that the lawsuit would set a new legal precedent that would threaten the agency’s approval of other medications if it loses.

The court is expected to issue its ruling by late June.

While most Americans support medication abortion in general, the poll found they are divided on it being mailed to patients without them first visiting a doctor in person. Forty-eight percent support mail delivery, and 50% oppose it. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans said they support an in-person-only policy, compared to 49% of Democrats and 41% of independents.

Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, 14 states have passed near-total abortion bans, while five others have outlawed them after six weeks of pregnancy.

Yet, there were more than 1 million abortions performed last year in the U.S. health care system than in 2020, a 12-year high, according to the abortion-rights policy think tank the Guttmacher Institute. Medication abortion accounted for 63% of all abortions last year, up 10 percentage points from 2020.

Some telemedicine clinics in blue states with new “shield laws” that protect them from prosecution mail abortion pill to patients living in states with bans.

Eight in 10 Americans — 79% — said they support the FDA continuing to have the ability to approve and regulate drugs. That includes 91% of Democrats and 78% of Republicans, the Axios-Ipsos poll found.

Asked about abortion in general, eight in 10 of those surveyed — and two-thirds of Republicans — said the government should not be involved in how a woman manages abortion issues. 

"There is a resounding consensus to stop litigating this, that this is a health issue between a woman and a doctor," Ipsos Vice President Mallory Newall told Axios.

Six in 10 respondents said they agree states should use ballot measures to make, or keep, abortion legal at the state level.

Fifty-eight percent of those polled said they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports restricting abortion access, although there is a wide partisan divide. Eighty-six percent of Democrats said they’d be less inclined to support an anti-abortion candidate, while 25% of Republicans did. Six in 10 independents said they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports restricting abortion access.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign said the poll shows that most Americans “stand with women and support their right to make their own health care decisions.”

“That’s bad news if you’re Donald Trump, who openly brags about the fact that he ‘killed’ Roe v. Wade, and is planning to go even further to pass a national abortion ban if he wins a second term,” said campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika. 

Trump has remained silent on the mifepristone case before the Supreme Court. 

In a radio interview last week, he said “people are agreeing” on a 15-week national abortion ban, adding he will “make that announcement at the appropriate time.” However, in the same interview, the former president said he thinks abortion laws should be decided by the states.

The Axios-Ipsos poll found that 58% of the public oppose a nationwide 15-week ban.

The margin of error in the poll was 3.5%.