AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Democrat politicians and mainstream media pundits have insisted that the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the subsequent enactment of pro-life laws by Republican state legislatures are out of step with public opinion. But polling on both the Dobbs decision and abortion policy generally suggests that, conversely, it is Democrats whose rapid descent into abortion extremism has left them at odds with the American people.
New data from a Harvard-Harris poll specifically paints a stark picture for Democrats. The first number that jumps out from the survey, which was conducted from June 28-29, is that while Americans are indeed deeply divided on abortion, they largely agree that late term abortions are bad: only 10% of respondents said they supported allowing abortion up until the moment of birth.
Despite such minimal support for this policy, abortion-on-demand up until the moment of birth is precisely the position that the vast majority of elected Democrats have now taken, as they have dropped all pretense of the “safe, legal, and rare” mantra that once supposedly defined the party’s stance on the issue. Prominent Democrats from New York Mayor Eric Adams to Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan and then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki (speaking on behalf of President Joe Biden from the podium) have declined to support any restrictions on abortion.
In Congress, 49 Senate Democrats voted in May in favor of a bill that would also allow for abortion up until the moment of birth, while House Democrats are poised to pass similar legislation in the coming weeks. Last year, House Democrats passed a bill that would legalize sex-selective abortions, and Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would have required doctors to provide life-saving care to infants born alive as a result of failed abortions. Meanwhile, Democrats in states like California, Washington, and New Jersey, among others, are now moving to expand access to late-term abortions – often using public funds to do so.
In the same poll, 72% of respondents (an unusually large majority on any issue in our deeply polarized political climate) also said that they support a ban on abortions after 15 weeks — precisely the question at issue in the Dobbs case. Moreover, While Democrats in states like Virginia have tried to slam Governor Glenn Youngkin as an abortion “extremist” following the Dobbs decision, it now appears that it is they who are in the minority after coming out strongly against Youngkin’s proposed 15-week abortion ban.
The survey also found that a full 49% of Americans support a ban on abortion after six weeks. While just shy of a majority, this finding immediately undercuts Democrats’ assertions that laws banning abortions after six weeks in states like Texas and Ohio represent a “fringe” position. 37% of respondents also supported a ban on elective abortions at any stage of pregnancy, with exceptions only for rape and incest – another sizable minority that is far larger than the 10% who said they support no limits on abortion.
The one bright spot in the poll for Democrats appears to be that 55% of respondents said they opposed overturning Roe v. Wade, while only 45% supported it – a similar finding to other polls that Democrats have touted in their messaging. But even this figure is more a reflection of the success of the mainstream media’s misinformation campaign rather than evidence that the public supports keeping Roe in place. While 55% of respondents said they opposed overturning Roe, only 25% of those same respondents said that the Supreme Court should set abortion policy – which is exactly what Roe did.
44%, meanwhile, said states should set abortion standards, while 31% said that responsibility should rest with Congress, which is the position that the majority in the Dobbs case took in their reasoning for overturning Roe. Other polls which have asked about support for Roe and then asked specifically about who people believe should set abortion policy have found similar results. In short, it seems as if many Americans believe – undoubtedly thanks to mainstream media narratives – that overturning Roe meant a federal ban on abortion, rather than merely returning the power to legislate abortion policy to the states.
Even with the media running this play, however, the Harvard-Harris poll suggests that Dobbs won’t be a winning issue for Democrats in the midterm elections as many in the party had hoped. While 36% of respondents said the decision made them more likely to vote Democrat in November, an additional 36% said they were more likely to vote Republican as a result, with 29% saying the decision made no difference. In other words, the Dobbs decision is at best a net neutral for Democrats – but even that may not be the case, as 59% of respondents said that it was wrong for Democrats to call the Court illegitimate as the result of the ruling.
Additional polling from USA Today/Suffolk University late last month also found that less than 15% of likely voters viewed abortion as the most important issue in the midterms, and just 23% said abortion was more important in the economy. Conversely, 66% of voters in the same poll said that the economy was the most important issue in deciding their vote – something that should be worrying for Democrats given record inflation and gas prices.
As with seemingly every other issue, a small but loud minority appears to have dragged the Democratic Party far to the left of the country as a whole on the issue of abortion – something which outgoing White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield openly admitted on her way out the door. Rather than a boon for the party’s electoral fortunes or reputation with the public, the end of Roe and the thrusting of abortion policy into the national spotlight may then be yet another instance where Democrats are forced to reveal how truly radical their position is, further alienating voters when they can least afford it.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_
Abortion is one of the biggest con jobs perpetrated on society. To convince a large cross-section of people that an unborn child is not substantial or a life unless wanted, remains the one of the greatest slights of hand. Imagine to be able to sanitize all those gruesome little details without discussing any of the actual realities is genius itself. To convince women and men to align themselves using the word “choice” is like bestowing some magical power over morality while destroying the unborn future en-mass.
The Silent Scream video of an abortion of a 12-week gestated baby (even with the low tech, grainy pictures) shows definitively that the “fetus” is an alive human baby created at fertilization as current science shows. Anyone that says it’s just a blob of tissue, not alive, not worth anything, is lying.
youtube.com/watch?v=4Hb3DFELq4Y
No one seems to realize what God is seeing. He hates sin, and hates the shedding of innocent blood. A time is approaching that judgment is coming. The blood will be on all the hands that performed abortions. We are no longer a Christian nation. God has been taken out of everything and now replaced with secular humanism. The Bible is God’s word, the absolute truth,and does not change. The truth is the truth, and a lie is a lie weather you believe it or not. If we don’t repent and come back to God, it’s going to be bad.
Funny how we only have choice is when the democrats can benefit from it politically.
We had No choice when they mandated masks and vaccines so we could work.
Abortion is just revenue for planned parenthood.
I felt so violated when I was forced to get vaccinated or lose my job. I will never forget how it felt or forgive the government (FJB)
As a nurse I worked in nursing homes with Covid and didn’t get sick until they vaxed me.
Follow the money, that’s all politicians care about.
Abortion has nothing to do with a so-called woman’s rights over her body. The fundamental issue here is whether state sanctioned murder of an unborn child is allowed or not.
The real reason Democrats are blowing a fuse over the Supreme Court decision is they know by turning it back to the states that most states won’t vote for late term abortions. The next reason is they no longer can use Roe V Wade as a campaign ploy with lies about banning abortions which it doesn’t do, it only turns it back to the states. They’ve been using it for 50 years and can no longer use it. So what do they have left to campaign on? The gun issue they also use but with an overwhelming amount of new gun buyers the last couple years have been Democrats. And they learned that shooting is fun and protecting them themselves is a vital concern. Again I will no longer talk to my liberal friends or my 2 liberal sisters. Why because if they are fine with lying, cheating at elections, banning free speech and socialism which destroys countries that is not the kind of people I want to hang around with. It shows me more of their character than mine.
Abortion is another word for premeditated murder. Even the liberal commentator Leonard Pitts, who is not necessarily anti- abortion ( I have the article ) stated that abortion is murder- it stops a beating heart. I am against any abortion. In the case of the life of the mother, you try your best to save both patients. Just as we are shocked, and we should be, when a person with evil intentions kills people he does not know ( and it is the person, not the gun; in the case of people killed every day by drunk drivers, it is the driver that is guilty, not the car; it was the evil minded persons guilty of 9/11, not the airplanes) we should be horrified that a mother would pay to have her own son or daughter’s body ripped apart- and yes it is the child’s body that is given no choice. How could women march and scream for the right to kill their precious children except in the case of ignorance of the truth or selfishness. Go watch the nurse put the body parts together to make sure everything is accounted for after the butcher walks out to get his check. As for the men- they want the right to have a few minutes of pleasure with no responsibility.
Our Government is so preoccupied with murdering babies they are neglecting the things our Government ought to be taking care of, especially the border, economy, relations with other countries, military, race relations, drugs pouring over the border, insane young men shooting up decent citizens, you know— things the government is SUPPOSED to be handling!!
The DEMONCRATS do NOTHING but CRY WOLF.
Once again the Democrats are in self denial. They cannot accept the fact that the majority of Americans totally reject their radical agenda. They are the ones “out of touch” with reality.
All of this will be very evident during the mid term elections when they lose the House and the Senate is once again firmly in Republican hands.
They already know this to be true but yet they cannot face reality.
The Dems in Washington along with Planned Parenthood should have been have never been funded by the people of this country all these groups that like killing babies are just sick, women can give the baby up for adoption and there are pills they can use to stop from having children these are more humane ways to terminate pregnancy. Dems should push for that instead of just pushing abortion
There is no such thing as an “Abortion” on a viable baby. That is not Abortion, it is Infanticide. ALL Liberals are Ice-Cold Automatons, totally devoid of compassion, love, empathy, and morality. They refuse to believe that they WILL one day be judged for their evil, and it will be a Glorious Day!
What time is their Shrink appointment?
Abortion should never have been allowed to become ‘birth control’ in the first place. Nor should it ever have been accepted to be “health care”. It isn’t and never was.
It is the termination of life when not an emergency situation, aka murder.
That so many ignorant fools do not understand this never should have been a federal issue (along with education and others) is appalling.
Polls are not needed to know that the MAJORITY of human beings in this country do not accept abortion as the Left’s lie of women’s health care. The Democrats, or devil worshippers, need polls to prove everything for them!!
Abortion= a permanent solution for a temporary problem. The height of selfishness! The politicians and the ‘birth mother’ should be required to view / hold the tray that contains the body parts they’ve ordered ripped and torn and killed. Ignorance shouldn’t be bliss. They can OWN that! That should be their ‘take-away’ for the balance of their lives.