Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Without Roe v. Wade

After a discussion with my mom about conservatives' seeming obsession with abortion, it got me thinking about what would happen if the pro-life supporters got their way and were able to overturn Roe v. Wade. Overturning Roe v. Wade, of course, just allows states to then decide for themselves whether to support or ban abortion. While this might lead to a few states banning abortion, nationally the majority of Americans consider themselves pro-choice. The most recent numbers I could find that gave state-by-state opinions on abortion was a 2005 survey by Survey USA. This is what they found, blue states are plurality pro-choice and red states are plurality pro-life.



If we just considered these numbers, it would seem that the majority of states would maintain abortion rights. However, there is also another consideration, South Dakota. In the survey, South Dakota showed a slight pro-life lean, but since this poll was taken there have been two ballot measures to restrict abortion rights in South Dakota, and both lost by over 10%. So that would seem to mean that even states with pro-life majorities may be reluctant to restrict abortion rights.

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