The Wall Street Journal has released a national poll of voters showing that a plurality, 48%, want unborn babies protected after 15 weeks into the pregnancy.
Carol Tobias of the National Right to Life Committee tells AFN the poll was released in anticipation of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision this summer over Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. In the state legislature, she says, pro-life lawmakers were determined to protect the unborn before viability.
“And the poll from The Wall Street Journal shows there is a large segment of the population,” she says, “that thinks those children should be protected before viability. So it was just very encouraging.”
The high court issued its landmark Roe v Wade decision in 1973, 49 years ago, back when the medical technology of the time was pushing viability at about 26 weeks.
“Now we are looking at babies surviving at 21 or 22 weeks,” Tobias points out.
A half-century after Roe, the technology of a fetal sonogram similarly allows the expectant mother to hear the baby’s heartbeat as early as six weeks. That feat of technology likely sways much of the fence-sitting public to conclude life is growing in the womb and to dismiss abortion supporters' claim the woman is carrying a "blob of cells" in the womb.
So it appears, Tobias says, the American public is agreeing the more we learn about these babies, the more they deserve to be protected by law.
