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It has been 40 years since the Supreme Court handed down the Roe V. Wade decision and support for it among the American people has never been higher, according to a new NBC/WSJ poll.
The poll found that 70 percent of Americans don’t want to see the law overturned while only 24 percent think it should be overturned. This is a four point improvement compared to 2005.
In addition the poll found that 54 percent of Americans believe that abortion should always be legal or legal most of the time. By comparison only 9 percent think it should be illegal in all cases and 35 percent think it should be illegal but with exceptions for rape and the mother’s life.
In the past decade there has been a huge shift on other culture war issues like drug policy and marriage equality. While opinions about reproductive rights haven’t changed nearly as dramatically as those other issues, there does seem to be a modest trend towards more support. At least on social issues the country has undeniably moved towards the left.
Photo by peacechicken under creative commons license
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Funny how what The People want is not what the wingnuts legislate. The war on women continues.
With several state legislatures’ gerrymanderanigans, the popular-political seismic pressure (polls vs. ‘creative’ use of building codes) seems bound to grow over the next few years.
We had some strongly anti-abortionist letters in our local paper today. As I pointed out there, support for abortion restrictions is extremely soft. People like the idea of restrictions in the abstract, as long as it’s a philosophical issue, way above the clouds somewhere, it sounds good. As soon as pro-choicers and the accidently-honest Todd Akin and his buddies made the price of anti-abortion activism clear, support for restrictions fell off a cliff.
I imagine this trend will continue once all the Obamacare free birth control measures kick in.
We need to do away with all legal restrictions to women’s reproduction decisions. We need to trust women and their doctors, and kick the government out COMPLETELY. Repiglickin’ arguments against women are based on a tissue of lies.
Get the government out of all healthcare decisions. What does Rand Paul not understand about liberty? Fecking eejit hypocrite.
While polls are interesting, medical procedures on any person should not be a referendum subject.
Obama: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not endowed by other people, nor by the government. They are inherent.
What are you trying to say?