Slippery Polls About Roe v. Wade

Polls showing public support for Roe. v. Wade are rooted in flagrant disinformation spread by the media.

SOURCES:

A leak indicates the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473

For decades, the media has been reporting that Roe only legalizes abortion for the first 3 months of pregnancy or before viability: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Roe+v.+Wade%22+%22first+three+months%22+OR+%22viability%22&lr=&safe=images&biw=1024&bih=686&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F2000%2Ccd_max%3A5%2F26%2F2022&tbm=nws

Polls explicitly mislead respondents to believe that Roe only legalizes abortion before viability: https://www.justfactsdaily.com/roe-v-wade-allows-abortions-for-all-9-months-of-pregnancy-not-just-the-first-3

Humans become viable around 22 weeks of pregnancy, or about 24 weeks after fertilization:
https://jme.bmj.com/content/46/11/773.full
https://www.justfacts.com/abortion#Science

“By week 12, the fetus sucks its thumb, kicks, makes fists and faces, and has the beginnings of baby teeth.” [Textbook: Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications (3rd edition). McGraw Hill, 1998. Page 56.]

“Limb movements, which occur at the end of the embryonic period (8 weeks), become coordinated by the 14th week, but are too slight to be felt by the mother.” [Textbook: Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology and Birth Defects (5th edition). W.B. Saunders Company, 1998. Page 106.]

“The central advance of this study is the demonstration that ‘social actions’ are already performed in the second trimester of gestation. Starting from the 14th week of gestation twin foetuses plan and execute movements specifically aimed at the co-twin.” https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0013199

“At 20 weeks, the fetus … now sleeps and wakes and hears sounds.” [Article: “Fetus.” American Medical Association Complete Medical Encyclopedia. Random House, 2003.]

Roe v. Wade mandates that abortion be legal after viability “for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.” Some examples of what Roe considers harmful to health include “child care,” “the distress” of having an “unwanted child,” and the “stigma of unwed motherhood.” https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/410/113.html

The Supreme Court’s 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed “Roe’s essential holding” that abortion be legal after viability “for pregnancies which endanger the woman’s life or health.” https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/505/833.html

On the same day the Supreme Court issued Roe v. Wade, it also issued Doe v. Bolton with an order that these rulings “are to be read together.” Doe mandates that “the medical judgment” about whether an abortion is needed for “the wellbeing of the patient” can be made by any “physician” who is “licensed by the State” to perform abortions: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/410/179/#tab-opinion-1950139

Gallup polls conducted for decades show that 80–86% of Americans want abortion to be illegal in the last three months of pregnancy: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx

States have enacted about 400 restrictions that defy Roe: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2975/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22%5C%22women%27s+Health+Protection+Act%5C%22%22%5D%7D&r=1&s=2

A 2011 New York Times commentary explains that “abortion rights groups” have “been wise to avoid” suing states that prohibit “abortion after 20 or 22 weeks of pregnancy,” because 72% of the public favors “making late-term abortion illegal,” and it is “best” not to tread on this “dangerous political ground.” https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/magazine/the-reincarnation-of-pro-life.html