Roe v. What? Abortion Is No Longer A Critical Issue For The Majority Of Americans

abortion

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Pew Research decided to take a poll to find out just how controversial abortion still is in our country. After the contentious political debate of this past’s year election, one would have thought that reproductive rights were a hot button issue. Turns out, the majority of the country is ready to accept a woman’s right to control her own body and move on.

Seriously. If you look past the Republican Congressmen in the House of Representatives, abortion just isn’t nearly as controversial as it used to be. According to Pew,

The Pew Research Center found that 53% of those

surveyed said abortion ”is not that important compared to other issues,” up from 48% in 2009 and 32% in 2006. The percentage viewing abortion as a ”critical issue facing the country” fell from 28% in 2006 to 15% in 2009 and now stands at 18%

The latest poll found that 63% of respondents said they would not like to see the court overturn Roe vs. Wade, while 29% said they would like to see it overturned.

In politics, reproductive rights seemed to be a major issue of the past election. The Personhood movement attempted to curtail women’s rights in states all across the country. Candidates who made ignorant and down-right offensive comments about women’s reproductive rights were unanimously rejected by voters. It looks most of the country would just like us to accept these rights as necessary and start discussing other important issues, like gun control or global warming.

I think the most telling and important statistic from their research is the simple fact that 63% of people don’t want to see abortion rights go away. No matter how they personally view abortion, whether they would ever consider it as a choice for themselves or not, the majority of people realize just how important reproductive rights are.

There’s no question. Abortion rights were a divisive issue in our country for a long time. But it looks like we’re ready to accept that this debate has been settled. It’s time to tackle new problems.

(Photo: kentoh/Shutterstock)

Similar Posts