Roe in the Public Mind


Published November 18, 2021

National Review - November 29, 2021 issue

Read other pieces by EPPC scholars published in National Review’s “End Roe” issue:

Erika Bachiochi | Patrick T. Brown | O. Carter Snead


In the upcoming Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Court very well might uphold Missi­s­sippi’s prohibition on most abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation, and most observers expect it to do so. In that case, the decision will strike at the heart of the Court’s two previous landmark abortion cases: Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

In response, proponents of legal abortion will use every strategy at their disposal to discredit the ruling. One essential element of such a strategy will be a PR campaign condemning the reversal of Roe and Casey as contrary to American public opinion, and an effort to channel voter anger about the ruling against Republican candidates in next fall’s midterm elections.

But the pro-life movement should not let abortion-rights supporters get away with it. Judging from public-opinion polling over the most recent decade, though American sentiment is fairly complex when it comes to whether and when abortion should be legal, a clear majority opposes the status quo in abortion law and policy.

Click here to read the rest of this piece at National Review‘s website.

Alexandra DeSanctis is a staff writer for National Review and a visiting fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.


EPPC Fellow Alexandra DeSanctis writes on culture and family issues, with a particular focus on abortion policy and pro-life advocacy, as a member of the Life and Family Initiative.

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