Public Opinion Snapshot: America and Roe v. Wade

By Ruy Teixeira | April 20, 2007

Opponents of abortion rights have been concentrating on chipping away at protections for women with various restrictions like parental notification and banning so-called “partial birth abortions.” These groups are no doubt very happy with the new Supreme Court decision upholding the law banning a rare abortion procedure during the second trimester of pregnancy.

But before they get too giddy, they should remember why they adopted that strategy to begin with: they had to. What these groups really wanted to do was ban abortions entirely—in other words, get rid of Roe v. Wade. They realized this would be very, very difficult to do because the public is very, very supportive of Roe v. Wade—hence the chipping away strategy.

Well, according to the latest poll data, nothing’s changed.  As the chart below shows, the public is opposed to reversing Roe v. Wade by a more than 2:1 proportion (62 percent to 29 percent)—an entirely typical result in recent years.  Abortion rights opponents would be wise to take note: it’s still a pro Roe v. Wade country, and a mountain of public opposition still stands in the way of plans to turn back the clock to pre-1973 America and re-criminalize abortion.

For more information on the Center for American Progress’ positions on this and related issues, see: 

• More than a Choice
• Extreme Abortion Positions Rejected
• The Hyde Amendment: 30 Years of Violating Women’s Rights
• The Right Way to Reduce Abortion
• Why Roe Doesn’t Matter Right Now

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