THIS SURVEY EXPLORES AMERICANS’ AND CANADIANS’ PERSPECTIVES ON ROE V. WADE POTENTIALLY BEING OVERTURNED, AND THEIR OPINIONS ON ABORTION.
A draft United States Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the American law that protects women’s rights to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction, was recently leaked to the press. Immediately, the story began to make headlines.
Our latest North American Tracker examines Americans’ and Canadians’ perspectives on the potential overturning of this landmark decision.
This survey is conducted in collaboration with the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) and published in the Canadian Press. This series of surveys is available on Leger’s website.
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Overturning Roe v. Wade: Americans’ Perspectives
- 56% of Americans think Roe v. Wade should not be overturned, 28% think it should be overturned and 16% don’t know.
- Americans’ opinions are mixed on the abortion laws they would like their state to implement if individual states were allowed to regulate their own abortion laws.
- 45% of Americans support the right to abortion in most or all situations, 29% support it only in certain situations and 19% do not support it.
- 17% of Americans would consider moving to another state if abortion is banned in their state.
Overturning Roe v. Wade: Canadians’ Perspectives
- 70% of Canadians are concerned about the Supreme Court potentially overturning Roe v. Wade.
- 46% of Canadians think the situation in the United States related to Roe v. Wade may impact Canada, 35% do not and 19% don’t know.
- 64% of Canadians support introducing a Canadian law to protect the right to abortion (including 74% of Liberal supporters, 78% of NDP supporters, 51% of Conservative supporters and 84% of Bloc Québécois supporters)*.
- 79% of Canadians are in favour of a woman’s right to abortion, while 14% are opposed.
*Supporters indicates the party respondents indicated they would vote for if a federal election were held today. Bloc Québécois asked in Quebec only.
METHODOLOGY
This web survey was conducted from May 6 to 8, 2022, with 1,534 Canadians and 1,003 Americans, 18 years of age or older, randomly recruited from LEO’s online panel.
A margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey. . For comparison, a probability sample of 1,003 respondents would have a margin of error of ±3.094%, 19 times out of 20, while a probability sample of 1,534 respondents would have a margin of error of ±2.5%, 19 times out of 20.
THIS REPORT CONTAINS THE RESULTS FOR THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND MORE!
- If individual states were allowed to regulate their own abortion laws, what would you expect your state to do?
- On a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is not at all emotional and 10 is very emotional, how emotional do you feel about the news that Roe v. Wade may be overturned?
- How familiar are you with the Roe v. Wade ruling?
- Do you think the situation in the United States with regards to the right to an abortion may have an impact here in Canada?
- Right now in Canada, there is no federal law that protects women’s right to an abortion, but the general convention has been that governments will not legislate on the matter to restrict that right. Should the Government of Canada introduce a bill in the House of Commons to protect the right of women to freely choose to have an abortion?