OPINION: By the numbers, why Roe v. Wade will probably stand
The spittake would have drenched my fellow commuters and earned me a rough ejection at the next station.
The nation is, indeed, divided on and ambivalent about where to draw the legal line on a woman's right to choose to terminate her pregnancy. But year after year, poll after poll has shown that strong majorities of the public support the 1973
A survey of 1,492 registered voters released
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In fact, going back 20 years in the PollingReport.com archives it's rare to find support for Roe dipping below 60 percent, and in no poll has it fallen below 50 percent.
Collins' error -- her misunderstanding of where the public actually stands -- was so egregious that the
Why is public opinion so strongly behind the decision? My sense is that many who have moral objections to abortion or who believe the constitutional underpinnings of Roe are flimsy nevertheless see the decision as a bulwark against a return to the Bad Old Days when abortion was a crime.
Roe ended the era of back-alley pregnancy terminations and drew a line between Her Business and The Government's Business that many of us appreciated.
It also energized the political right. Opposition to Roe and to the expansive access to legal abortions it permitted has driven conservative voters to the polls and inflamed a sense of cultural grievance that has boosted Republican candidates, including even sleazy reprobates like Trump, for the past 45 years.
In contrast, supporters of abortion rights have been comparatively complacent, particularly since 1992 when the
But opponents didn't give up. State by state, fueled by passion and indignation, they've elected conservative legislators who've passed some 400 laws eroding and limiting access to abortion. Many but not all of these laws have been blocked by the courts, but 17 states are poised to outlaw the practice altogether the moment a more conservative court overturns Roe.
Pro-lifers should be careful what they wish for. Outright abortion bans are not popular. Twenty-five times since 2004,
The looming threat to Roe is already galvanizing the political left. Liberals are finally waking up to the importance of the judiciary -- no more symbolic protest votes, you feckless twits! -- and an outright reversal of Roe, which would allow the individual states to regulate abortion as their legislatures see fit, augurs blue wave after blue wave to wash away the effect of minority rule.
That's why I don't expect it to happen. I expect the justices will understand what
And, as I often say, I expect that my grandkids and your grandkids will be having these same arguments over abortion long after we're gone.
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