Ever since the US Supreme Court decided that women’s rights to their own bodies would be left to individual state legislation, 13 states have outright banned abortion and a further 5 states have restricted the practice based on the age of the foetus. At the same time, prominent republicans like Ron DeSantis refrain from mentioning the issue at their rallies. So, is abortion really as opposed as it seems?
Unsurprisingly, abortion is a contentious and divisive topic. However, this becomes even more true due to the intricacies it comes with. For example, while many abortion laws in the United States call for a complete ban, others call for bans based on the gestational period: how long the embryo/foetus has been developing inside a woman’s body. Furthermore, some bans include exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother (for fairly clear reasons) while others do not (for fairly unclear reasons).
This has led to a major issue in polling: the terminology used to ask the question can greatly sway the results of the same. Particularly, when a poll mentions specific exceptions to abortion, bans receive much lower approval ratings than in polls that simply state the gestational period. Comparing different polls on this criteria show a difference of over 10% based on the same gestational period. Additionally, a significant gap in approval percentages is also seen when the gestational period is not included and only a complete ban on abortion is mentioned.
This may be the reason why many high-profile Republicans, who have been campaigning on anti-abortion policies for years, still refuse to openly address the issue in their rallies. This was clearly illustrated in their responses to the protests surrounding abortion laws in the states of Nebraska and North Carolina. In both these states, Republicans have tried to change the messaging around their anti-abortion bills in order to soothe public backlash, however, this has not been accompanied by a corresponding change in the legislation. This was also seen in Ron DeSantis’s (the governor of Florida) initial reluctance to sign the state’s anti-abortion bill, despite his eagerness to sign bills intended to restrict the freedoms of the LGBTQ+ community, which seem to be a smaller fraction of his voter base. As such, abortion is simultaneously an issue that is deeply troubling in the United States but also one that many governmental figures do not want to talk about, despite the fact that they continue to push through legislation against it. Therefore, it is that much more important that the average person knows exactly how much of the public actually supports the things that these politicians do.
