A recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that a majority of likely voters are in favor of the Supreme Court potentially overturning Roe v. Wade. Rasmussen found that 48% of respondents to its national telephone and online survey were in favor of overturning the 1973 ruling, including 32% who would “strongly approve.”
45% of respondents said they would oppose such a ruling, including 35% who would “strongly disapprove.”
The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on May 3, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence, according to the pollster.
While a slight majority indicated that they would be in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade, 51% of voters described themselves as “pro-choice” on the issue of abortion, while 40% of respondents identified themselves as “pro-life.”
The number of respondents describing themselves as pro-choice has declined from 54% in July of 2019, indicating movement on the issue.
In addition, answers largely followed partisan lines. 74% of Democrats consider themselves generally pro-choice on the abortion issue while 63% of Republicans consider themselves pro-life. Among likely voters who are not affiliated with a major party, 48% consider themselves pro-choice and 39% chose pro-life.
Those who identified as “strong supporters” of President Biden overwhelmingly responded with pro-choice (82%).
Along racial lines, white respondents were the most likely to describe themselves as pro-choice with 54%. Among black voters, 49% consider themselves pro-choice while 41% of “other minorities” indicated the same. “Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Black voters and other minorities, but only 43% of whites, would approve of a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade,” Rasmussen wrote in its poll summary.
Elected Democrats have repeatedly claimed that over 70% of Americans are opposed to overturning Roe v. Wade. A number of senators, including Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) have called for the Supreme Court to expand. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) even called the Supreme Court “illegitimate.”
