(NewsGlobal.com)- In the immediate aftermath of the leaked report that the Supreme Court is preparing to overturn the landmark 1973 case of Roe v. Wade, which preserved a woman’s right to abortion, some political pundits posed that this decision could hurt Republicans at the polls in the midterm elections.
But, according to recent polls, this leaked report of the draft majority opinion — as well as a potential official ruling in the matter — may not end up hurting the GOP’s chances at taking back full control of Congress following November’s elections.
Democrats are quickly trying to make abortion rights a central issue for the 2022 midterms, looking for anything that might help their already significantly-damaged chances.
Many people have speculated that a Supreme Court decision to take away abortion protections for women would ultimately hurt Republicans in the upcoming elections. A recent Gallup poll, though, suggests that abortion is not a major issue in the minds of most Americans.
Every year, Gallup conducts a poll regarding abortion and how Americans feel about it on its own and compared to other important issues of the day. As is typically the case, the last figures Gallup reported from May of 2021 show that Americans are fairly evenly split down the middle on the issue.
That poll revealed that 49% of all Americans call themselves “pro-choice” with 47% saying they’re “pro-life.”
Further, 48% believe abortion should be legal only in certain situations — although those situations weren’t clearly defined by the poll. Another 32% said it should be legal for any situation, with 19% saying it should be illegal in all situations and only 2% saying they didn’t have an opinion on the matter.
What’s more significant in terms of Republicans’ chances at the poll is that less than 1% of people who responded to a March 2022 poll by Gallup indicated that abortion was “the most important problem facing the country today.”
Instead, 22% believed that government/poor leadership was the top issue, followed by 17% saying the high cost of living/inflation was the top issue, and 11% saying the general economy was the top issue.
In other words, while Democrats in Congress are making a lot of noise over the abortion issue — and plenty of people on social media are doing the same — it doesn’t remain a top political concern for most Americans. And, as a result, a Supreme Court decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade might not have a significant impact on upcoming elections.
All of this controversy stems from Politico publishing a leaked majority opinion that was written by Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito. The media outlet said “a person familiar with the court’s deliberations” said that Alito was joined by Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas in the majority opinion, making for a 5-4 vote that would ultimately overturn Roe v. Wade.
All five of those justices were appointed by GOP presidents, including three — Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch — who were appointed by former President Donald Trump.
