Poll: Support for Roe v Wade hits all-time high

As President Trump awaits a hearing for his Supreme Court pick, support for the 1973 landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade has hit an all-time high among Americans, according to a new poll released Monday.

The NBC News and the Wall Street Journal poll found that that 71 percent of American voters believe that the ruling in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that federally legalized abortion, should not be overturned. Only 23 percent of those surveyed said the ruling should be reversed.

According to NBC News, that is the highest level of support among American voters for the decision in the history of the poll dating back to 2005.

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The poll comes as Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh prepares for a bitter confirmation fight to the High Court. Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace retiring swing-vote Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Many Democrats think that Kavanaugh could tilt the court to the right for decades and could be the deciding vote to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.

While the poll shows a stark contrast along party lines, all three demographics still had majority support for the law.

Of those respondents who identified as Democrats, 88 percent said they support the ruling. Seventy-six percent of those that identified as independents said Roe v. Wade shouldn’t be overturned and 52 percent of Republicans also said the same.

The poll also found that 39 percent of Republicans said they do not support Roe v. Wade.

A majority of those polled were also found to be more likely to vote for a pro-abortion-rights rather than a political candidate who backs restrictions on abortions. 

Forty-four percent of voters polled said they would be more likely to vote for a political candidate who supports abortion rights, while 26 percent of American voters said they would be more likely to vote for a political candidate who supports abortion restrictions. 

Twenty-nine percent of voters said that a political candidate’s stance on abortion rights would have no effect on their vote.

Roe v. Wade has moved to the forefront of the national conversation in the past few weeks following news of Kennedy’s looming retirement.

According to the new poll, only 32 percent of voters back Trump’s pick to fill the seat in the nation’s highest court, while 26 percent said Kavanaugh should not be confirmed. 

The live-caller NBC/WSJ poll sampled 900 registered voters and was conducted between July 15-18. The poll also has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.