Abortion Polls

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 42, Heft 3, S. 411-413

Abstract

The Harris poll is a major barometer of PO regarding the Supreme Court's 1973 abortion decision. Between June 1972 & early 1978, Harris posed seven major abortion questions to the American public, including the following one, which has been repeated annually. "In 1973, the US Supreme Court decided that state laws which make it illegal for a woman to have an abortion up to three months of pregnancy were unconstitutional, & that the decision on whether a woman should have an abortion up to three months of pregnancy should be left to the woman & her doctor to decide. In general, do you favor or oppose the US Supreme Court decision making abortions up to three months of pregnancy legal?" Noting that the Court actually permitted abortion throughout the nine months of pregnancy, & surveying the public's responses to other polls, it appears that the Harris question is an invalid measure of PO of the Court's ruling, because it narrowly focuses attention on the first trimester of pregnancy. Asking the question in this form misleads uninformed Rs about the actual nature of the Court's ruling, & restricts the attention of informed Rs to one clause in that ruling. Therefore, reports based on this question overestimate the extent of support for the Court's decision. AA.