Broad Public Support For Roe?

A widely asserted claim by the punditry recently has been that the American public overwhelmingly supports a woman’s right to receive an abortion and opposes any potential reversal of Roe v. Wade. This assertion is based, almost exclusively, on a recent poll taken by the Gallup Organization that has 65% of Americans favoring Roe’s preservation. However other recently released data from Rasmussen Reports, one of the best polling firms in existence, counters this assertion.

While a majority of Americans certainly oppose any complete and unequivocal ban on abortion, they also oppose it’s broad implementation. 52% say abortion is morally wrong most of the time and 53% believe it is too easy to receive one. Only 18% believe it is too hard. Furthermore, 47% believe that the reversal of Roe v. Wade would result in the states deciding the issue themselves, which another 47% of Americans prefer. Just 39% of Americans believe that the Supreme Court should set the rules governing abortion.

While these numbers indicate that only a plurality desire the effects Roe’s reversal would bring, they also refute the notion that Americans broadly support it’s preservation. If anything, the division that exists over abortion and the lack of any clear consensus emphasize the need to return sovereignty over the issue to the states and the people, who can decide for themselves whether the practice is right or not.