Yesterday, Democratic lawmakers took the next step in their effort to codify Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that circumvented the Democratic process to legalize abortion in nearly all cases.
At the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the Women’s Health Protection Act, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the bill’s co-sponsor, criticized state laws limiting abortion, claiming, “These are laws that are advocated and passed by extremist state legislatures who are out-of-touch with mainstream America.”
On this, the senator is just plain wrong. People want restrictions on abortion. That’s one reason they keep electing state legislators that vote for them.
In reality, it is the Democrats’ specific proposals in the WHPA that are out of touch with public opinion. For instance, the WHPA would effectively nullify state laws that require abortion providers to get hospital admitting privileges. But there is 64% public support for this requirement in a 2019 Marist poll. The WHPA would also lift restrictions on abortions conducted before viability, even though a 2018 Gallup poll found that 65% of people in the United States oppose abortion after the first three months of pregnancy.
Perhaps most importantly, the bill would not allow states to impose limitations on abortion based on “any actual, perceived, or potential reason … of the patient for obtaining abortion services.” Pro-life groups warn that this provision forces the legalization of sex-selective abortions for any reason. It would also prevent any limits on disability-selective and race-selective abortions of all kinds.
A 2012 poll conducted by the Polling Company/Womantrend and released by the pro-life Lozier Institute found that 77% of respondents oppose sex-selective abortion. Roughly half of those surveyed by Gallup in 2018 opposed abortion based on Down syndrome status during the first three months of pregnancy. The vast majority of individuals in the same Gallup poll were against disability-selective abortions during the last three months of pregnancy.
Polls suggest that people still approve of Roe, however little they understand the ruling’s precise significance. However, their approval should not be interpreted as an endorsement of Democrats’ extreme vision of abortion on demand.
People want sensible restrictions on abortion. The Democrats’ push to pass the WHPA demonstrates that they are, in fact, the abortion “extremists,” not the legislatures that are out there imposing popular limits on abortion.
