An overwhelming portion of women from the ages of 18 to 49 disapprove of the semi-recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, meaning the clock was turned way back on national legal protections for abortion. The portion of that demographic group in opposition was reported to be at roughly 80 percent, and the numbers are from polling done just recently for NBC.
Participants answering that question were identified specifically as female voters. The Supreme Court’s decision to undo Roe meant individual states around the country could chart their own course on the policy issue, and many locales with Republican leaders have seen their officials absolutely leap at the chance to restrict access to basic reproductive health care.
Nationally, action has been difficult, though there is technically the possibility that legislative action be taken to codify protections for abortion, replacing the protections that previously hinged on the court’s past interpretation in Roe of existing law that didn’t necessarily address abortion in explicitly specific terms. Many individual states with Democratic or at least more open-minded leaders have also taken action, from movement on state Constitutional amendments to protect abortion to stockpiles of medications used for abortions performed using prescription drugs.
The issue could — well, it will — loom large in the 2024 elections. There’s already been talk among Republicans of trying to put a national abortion ban of some sort in place, and do you really think Republicans potentially controlling the Senate would worry all that much about respecting tradition to the point of leaving the filibuster rules alone if such meant disrupting the imposition of their agenda? To Senate Democrats’ obvious credit, most of them have acknowledged the critical need for an adjustment to Senate procedure. It’s just that Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema won’t agree. Both will be on the ballot next year, assuming Sinema runs for another term at all.
In the NBC polling, the numbers were pretty similar across demographic groups. Overall, 61 percent disapproved of throwing out Roe. Republicans are out of step. Read more at this link.
