Issue Watch
Track global public opinion on current issues.
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Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research
Americans OK with Abortion, Not Partial Birth
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many adults in the United States are in favour of allowing pregnancy termination, according to a poll by Gallup released by USA Today. 53 per cent of respondents would not like to see the Supreme Court overturn its 1973 Roe versus Wade decision concerning abortion.
The 1973 Supreme Court ruling gave American women the right to an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, and regulated the procedure during the second trimester "in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health." In the third trimester, a state can choose to proscribe abortion, except when necessary "for the preservation of the life or health of the mother."
Last month, a Supreme Court ruling effectively banned partial birth abortion—a procedure performed in the late-term of pregnancy when the fetus can survive outside the womb—without making an exception for the health of the mother. 72 per cent of respondents think partial birth abortion should be illegal.
Last month, Florida's House of Representatives voted 71-42 in favour of a bill which seeks to mandate abortion providers to perform ultrasounds before almost all procedures, and establish a 24-hour period before a woman can have an abortion. Republican state representative Kevin Ambler explained the rationale, saying, "(The bill) doesn't do anything to take away women's right to choose. What it does do is put in place a thoughtful and deliberative process to think it through."
Polling Data
Would you like to see the Supreme Court overturn its 1973 Roe versus Wade decision concerning abortion, or not?
May 2007 | May 2006 | |
Yes | 35% | 32% |
No | 53% | 55% |
Unsure | 12% | 13% |
Now I would like to ask your opinion about a specific abortion procedure known as 'late term' abortion or 'partial birth' abortion, which is sometimes performed on women during the last few months of pregnancy. Do you think that this procedure should be legal or illegal?
Legal | 22% |
Illegal | 72% |
Unsure | 5% |
Source: Gallup / USA Today
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,003 American adults, conducted from May 10 to May 13, 2007. Margin of error is 3 per cent.