Polls Distort U.S. Views on Abortion
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 3:22 p.m. EST

As two vacancies on the Supreme Court opened up last year, a series of polls found that people in the U.S. approve of the Roe v. Wade decision by a significant margin but these polls distort Americans real feelings regarding abortion.

That's the view of Mark Stricherz, a contributing editor to Crisis magazine, who takes an in-depth look behind the polls in an article titled "A Terrible Misunderstanding."

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision declared that no restrictions can be placed on abortion in the first trimester; in the second trimester, the state can regulate abortion "in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health, but not ban it; and in the third trimester the state can ban abortion except when there is a threat to the mother's life or health. The rest