Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and Public Opinion about Abortion

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Women, Parenting, Families, & Criminal Justice

Abstract

With the recently leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the pending decision, Roe v. Wade is likely to be overturned or significantly weakened. As a result, abortion will be illegal in a significant proportion of the country. Understanding public opinion related to abortion is complex and can be difficult to interpret given the many factors to consider. For instance, aspects such as weeks’ gestation and circumstance can significantly impact abortion attitudes. In this lightning talk, we will present a series of high-level overviews of both quantitative and qualitative data collected over the past 4 years. We will summarize our data related to abortion attitudes in the context of aspects such as knowledge of Roe v. Wade, sentiment toward Roe v. Wade, perceptions of fetal development, abortion at different weeks’ gestation, and support for various punishments if abortion were to become illegal. We will conclude by summarizing all these data points to provide three general points related to abortion that we feel are representative of both our qualitative and quantitative findings. We will also provide a brief statement regarding future research.

Authors

• Brandon L. Crawford, Indiana University

• Kristen Jozkowski, Indiana University

• Megan Handley, Indiana University

• Ronna C. Turner, University of Arkansas

• Wen-Juo Lo, University of Arkansas