By Jay Rogers
Published May 1, 1989
In the wake of the controversy over legalized abortion, most Americans are unaware of the nature of the Roe vs. Wade ruling.
Roe vs. Wade was a 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the case of rape, incest, or when the physical health of the mother is endangered. The court also determined that human life could only be legally protected after the first trimester (or first three months) of a pregnancy. The court granted individual states the right to regulate abortion laws in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, but gave the individual woman the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.
Since 1973, however, over 23 million abortions have been performed … and most abortions are performed on demand without regard to the conditions of the original ruling. Ten percent of these, or over two million abortions, have been performed after the first three months of pregnancy.
A 1987 survey by the Alan Guttmacher Institute showed that three quarters of American women obtaining an abortion did so because having a baby would interfere with work, school, or other responsibilities.
About two-thirds in that sample said they could not afford to have a child, and half said that they did not want to be a single parent or were having problems in their relationship with their father.
Another poll conducted March 27-29, 1989, by The Boston Globe showed that most Americans would ban the vast majority of abortions performed in this country. Seventy-two percent said they would allow abortion in no circumstances or limit abortion to the circumstances provided for in the original Supreme Court ruling. According to the Guttmacher survey, those circumstances account for only seven percent of the 1.5 million abortions performed annually.
When rape or incest results in a pregnancy, or there is danger to the health and life of the mother, those surveyed overwhelmingly favored abortion. However, when pregnancy poses financial or emotional strain, or when the woman is unmarried or a teenager, the poll showed that a majority of Americans believe abortion should be illegal.
In the Boston Globe survey, 1002 registered voters were reached nationwide. Only 25 percent said that abortion should be legal in all circumstances, 19 percent said in no circumstances and 53 percent who believed that abortion should be legal only in certain circumstances were then asked a series of questions. Because of the reduced sample the question had an error margin of three percent.
The following circumstances were preceded by the question: “In this case, do you think it should be legal or illegal for a woman to obtain an abortion?”
- “A woman who feels that it’s the wrong time in her life to have a baby” – 82 percent said abortion should be illegal.
- “A woman who cannot afford to have a child” – 75 percent said abortion should be illegal.
- “The father is unwilling to help raise the child” – 83 percent said that abortion should be illegal.
- “The mother wants an abortion but the father wants the baby” – 72 percent said abortion should be illegal.
Most Americans disapprove the use of public funds to pay for abortions and the vast majority is opposed to the use of abortion for gender selection or birth control.
Although most Americans approve of abortion in certain circumstances (rape, incest, or physical danger to the mother) the poll reveals that 72 percent of all those surveyed are against abortion in most instances.
Recent polls show that Americans are not in favor of abortion on demand, but there is a disparity in popular opinion. Gallup and Harris showed that nearly 60 percent of the country does not favor the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, while 57 percent want abortion to be legal only in certain circumstances. Such apparently contradictory results show just how unaware most people in America are of the availability of abortion under the Roe vs. Wade decision.
The decision has now been extended to such a degree that second and third trimester babies are being slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands annually. M