Analysis

WSJ poll: More people support protecting preborn babies at 15 weeks than oppose it

A Wall Street Journal poll of 1,500 voters conducted in early March has revealed that more people support a restriction on abortion after 15 weeks than oppose it. In fact, the poll found that nearly 50% of respondents are in favor of such a restriction. This information comes as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which centers on Mississippi’s 2018 15-week abortion restriction law.

According to the poll, 48% of voters said they would strongly or somewhat favor a restriction on abortion after 15 weeks with exemptions that would aim to protect the life of the mother, while 43% said they would oppose such a restriction. Deliberately killing an undelivered child in the act of abortion is never medically necessary. If a woman’s life or health is truly at risk, a doctor does not need to take the time to kill the child prior to a preterm delivery to save the mother’s life. Preterm delivery and emergency C-sections are not abortions.

 

In all, 31% of voters said they strongly support a 15-week restriction, while 17% said they were somewhat in support of it. Another 34% said they strongly opposed such a restriction, and 10% said they were somewhat opposed.

“This recent Wall Street Journal poll adds to the body of data which shows that people support legal protections of preborn children after 15 weeks gestation. Two out of three polls conducted by Marquette University Law School since September of 2021 show such laws enjoy majority support. Furthermore, six Gallup polls taken since 1996 all found that at least 65% of Americans think abortion should be ‘generally illegal’ during the second trimester,” Dr. Michael New, an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) told Townhall.

At 15 weeks gestation (13 weeks post-fertilization), an undelivered baby is in the second trimester of her in utero development, her nose and lips are fully formed, and she can make complex facial expressions. She kicks her legs and waves her arms. She even hiccups, can suck her thumb, feel pain, sigh, and react when the bottom of her foot is touched.

Abortionists kill babies this age with the D&E method, also often referred to as dismemberment abortion. The baby is killed when her arms and legs are torn from her torso, and her skull is then crushed. Abortionist DeShawn Taylor joked on an undercover video that she needed to “hit the gym” to gain the strength needed to commit the dismemberment procedure, because it requires a  significant amount of force.

“The abortionist knows he has crushed the skull when a white substance comes out of the cervix,” explained former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino, in a video at AbortionProcedures.com. “This was the baby’s brains. The abortionist then removes skull pieces.”

Other polling has revealed that Americans would heavily restrict abortion to only certain circumstances or to the first trimester of pregnancy.

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