Americans Don't Understand 'Roe vs. Wade'

A national poll released today at the National Press Club by the Real Women’s Voices coalition shows that while 65 percent of Americans say they are familiar with the 1973 landmark abortion case, Roe vs. Wade, only 29 percent are able to select an accurate description of the ruling.

Real Women’s Voices is a coalition of national and state-based pro-life organizations bringing women from across the country to Washington on Wednesday to lobby Congress. The national survey of 1000 adults age 18 and over was conducted by the polling company,inc./WomanTrend on April 13-14, 2006. The margin of error is calculated at +/- 3.1 percent.

Key Findings: --Sixty-five percent of respondents said they considered themselves familiar (23 percent very familiar and 42 percent somewhat familiar) with the 1973 United States Supreme Court case of Roe vs. Wade. Thirty-one percent said they were not familiar (19 percent just a little familiar and 12 percent not at all familiar).

--Though 65 percent said they were familiar with Roe, when asked to identify which of four descriptions most accurately describes what the case provides as the law, only 29 percent selected the correct description:

--29% Made abortion legal in essentially all circumstances throughout pregnancy
--18% Made abortion legal but only in the first trimester--17% Made abortion legal but only in limited circumstances
--15% Made abortion legal but only in the first and second trimesters
--The majority (54 percent) agreed with one of three traditional pro-life statements:
-- Abortion should be prohibited in all circumstances,
-- Abortion should be legal only to save the life of the mother,
-- Abortion should be legal only in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.

Only 41 percent selected a pro-choice view. Notably, three-quarters of Americans (75 percent) say they believe abortions should never be allowed, allowed only in very limited circumstances, or not past the first trimester of pregnancy. The 18-34 year old group (especially 18-34 year old women) was more likely than respondents overall to identify with one of the three pro-life views of abortion.

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