As President Donald Trump’s latest U.S. Supreme Court nominee prepares for her Senate confirmation hearings, a new NBC/Survey Monkey poll shows a majority of Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark abortion ruling.
The survey, conducted Sept. 21-27, featured a national sample of 48,241 U.S. adults. NBC said respondents were selected from the more than 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day, and the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point.
The poll said 63% of those surveyed don’t believe the Supreme Court should completely overturn the decision, which established a woman’s right to an abortion in at least the first three months of a pregnancy. Twenty-nine percent said they do want the court to completely overturn the ruling.
Democrats are in favor of preserving the decision, with 86%, and 12% saying it should be overturned. Independents feel similarly, and Republicans are virtually split, with 50% supporting overturning the ruling and 47% against.
Confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will begin Oct. 12, with Senate Republicans planning to vote her out of committee and onto the Senate floor before the Nov. 3 election.
Barrett is sure to be asked her opinion on Roe v. Wade, and some of her past statements and rulings reflect her views on the decision.
“If anything, the public response to controversial cases like Roe (v. Wade) reflects public rejection of the proposition that (precedent) can declare a permanent victor in a divisive constitutional struggle rather than desire that precedent remain forever unchanging," Barrett wrote in a 2013 Texas Law Review article. "Court watchers embrace the possibility of overruling, even if they may want it to be the exception rather than the rule.”
In 2013, during a lecture at Notre Dame on the ruling’s 40th anniversary, Barrett said, “I think it is very unlikely at this point that the court is going to overturn (Roe v. Wade). The fundamental element, that the woman has a right to choose abortion, will probably stand.”
In 2016, when she was asked how a conservative-leaning Supreme Court could alter Roe v. Wade, Barrett replied, “I don’t think abortion or the right to abortion would change. I think some of the restrictions would change ... The question is how much freedom the court is willing to let states have in regulating abortion.”
White House nominee Joe Biden and fellow Democrats have been protesting GOP efforts to replace Ginsburg so close to the November presidential election, saying voters should speak first on Election Day, and the winner of the White House should fill the vacancy. No court nominee in U.S. history has been considered so close to a presidential election.
Democrats also are accusing Republicans of hypocrisy, after the GOP-led Senate refused to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland in 2016. Then-President Barack Obama nominated Garland to replace the late Antonin Scalia, but the Senate refused to hold confirmation hearings until after the November presidential election.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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