A new poll published on Tuesday shows that a strong majority of Americans continue to believe that abortion should be legal “in all or most cases,” but that the number who explicitly support defending the Roe v. Wade ruling has declined considerably, while still remaining a majority as well.
According to ABC News, which finished the poll in conjunction with the Washington Post last week, 57% of Americans surveyed supported abortion being legal up to at least the 15th week of pregnancy, with 58% supporting it being legal in almost every case. The four situations outlined in the survey were: the woman cannot afford to have a child, there’s evidence of serious birth defects, the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, and the woman’s physical health is endangered by the pregnancy.
Across all categories, a majority believed a woman should not be forced to give birth to the child, with the for/against being nearly equal when the woman cannot afford it and being almost totally in favor when her health is in danger. About 37% said it should be illegal in almost every case.
The poll also found that 54% of Americans surveyed support upholding Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established the legal right to an abortion under the purview of a woman’s right to privacy. That number is 6 percentage points lower than it was when the two news outlets conducted the poll just seven months ago, in November 2021.
However, the number who believe Roe should be overturned stayed nearly the same, 27%, meaning more people answered “no opinion” on the question.
Abortion on the Chopping Block
The November poll was conducted amid a rekindled battle for abortion rights kicked off by the Supreme Court allowing a Texas anti-abortion law to take effect on September 1, 2021.
Known simply as SB8, the law bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, when the embryo - it’s not even a fetus yet - is claimed to have a detectable “heartbeat,” although medical experts have noted that the embryo does not have a heart at that stage of development. The law introduced an enforcement mechanism designed to evade being struck down by the courts; it works by allowing any third party in the state to sue someone who “aids and abets” the abortion, including the medical professional or even the taxi driver who took her to the abortion clinic, for a hefty fine.
The high court let the law stand, hearing a case in November in which it found that while Texas abortion providers could sue the state over the law, the courts could not enjoin it.
In a second abortion case heard by the court in December, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Mississippi state government asked the high court to also reconsider the validity of its ruling in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, another abortion ruling that reaffirmed the decision made in Roe. The situation alarmed pro-choice activists, as conservatives command a decisive majority on the Supreme Court.
On Monday, their worst fears were confirmed when a draft copy of a majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson was leaked to Politico. The opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito and whose authenticity was confirmed by Chief Justice Roberts, referred to abortion as “not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions,” overturning the court’s decisions in Roe and Casey.
The decision has not been officially published, and justices could still change their opinions before then, but if Roe is officially overturned, abortion will immediately become illegal in 13 US states via “trigger” laws that automatically activate abortion bans. Nine other US states also have pre-Roe laws still on the books, which would reactivate.
After the court’s September inaction, Democrats rushed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would enter the provisions of Roe v. Wade into the US legal code. While it passed the House, the bill stalled in the Senate, where Democrats have a razor-thin majority, and ultimately failed in a March 1 vote. Rallies across the country, including a massive march in Washington, DC, in early October, demanded the bill’s passage and called for a defense of abortion rights.
On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden pledged to pursue passage of the bill, but put the onus of abortion defense primarily on voters, calling on them to elect pro-choice politicians in the November 2022 elections.