Where do people stand on Roe v. Wade? It depends how you ask them.
If you simply name the ruling and ask if it should be overturned, most people say “keep it.” If, instead, you describe the substance and effects of Roe v. Wade, the public is evenly split, and independents are more likely to oppose the ruling than support it. A new Washington Examiner/YouGov poll found an even divide on the question of allowing states to pass their own abortion laws versus having the courts strike down those laws.
The Washington Examiner/YouGov poll asked, “Should individual states be free to regulate abortion as they see fit (such as on safety standards or with bans on abortion after a certain point of pregnancy) or should federal court be able to strike down state rules?” Forty-three percent said federal courts should be able to strike down state rules, while 42% said the states should be able to regulate abortion. The poll, of 1,200 registered voters, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points, making this effectively a tie.
Independents were far more likely to favor allowing states to regulate abortion (47% to 36%), as were Republicans (50% to 37%). Democrats favored courts striking down such bans, 51% to 33%.
Most polls on public attitudes toward Roe simply ask whether the decision should be overturned. Many people wrongly assume that if Roe were overturned, all abortions would be outlawed everywhere, while, in truth, overturning Roe would mostly return the issue to the states.
NBC, for instance, recently reported, “Sixty-six percent of adults say they don’t think the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade.”
The question in that survey, however, understated the breadth of Roe in protecting abortion. NBC’s question was: “In 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, at least in the first three months of pregnancy. Would you like to see the Supreme Court completely overturn its Roe v. Wade decision, or not?”
Roe actually asserted a constitutional right to abortion up until the moment of birth and tried to remove abortion from the democratic process and the purview of state governments. Subsequent rulings have allowed states some right to regulate abortion, but not much.
