A "Teachable Moment": Setting the Record Straight on Roe
By Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq.

Just a few weeks after the November 2 elections, the Associated Press reported that in an AP-sponsored poll by Ipsos-Public Affairs 59 percent of respondents said they thought President Bush should nominate Supreme Court justices who would uphold Roe v. Wade, while 31 percent wanted nominees who would overturn Roe.

But don't be alarmed. The poll was a fraud.

The poll question read: "Roe v. Wade made abortion in the first three months of pregnancy legal. Do you think President Bush should nominate Supreme Court justices who would uphold the Roe v. Wade decision, or nominate justices who would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision?"

Ask a phony question, get a phony answer.

Thanks to three decades of dishonest reporting from the mainstream media about abortion, many Americans don't understand that Roe v. Wade made abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy. The Associated Press, a massive news distribution network, got it stunningly wrong.

The real Roe, as opposed to the fictitious decision, legalized abortion for any reason up to "viability" - - roughly about five and one-half months. But here's the catch: the seven-justice majority required states to allow abortions for "health reasons" even after viability.

Making a terrible decision worse, the Court defined "health" in a companion case (Doe v. Bolton) to include "all factors - - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age - - relevant to the well-being of the patient."

And who would be the best source whether the "first three months" formulation is fact or fiction? The Supreme Court itself. In its 1992 Casey decision explicitly the Court held that the abortion "right" applied with equal force at every point prior to "viability." They also added, "We reject the trimester framework, which we do not consider to be part of the essential holding of Roe."

Because of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, there are no meaningful legal barriers to abortion during any stage of pregnancy.

Polls which ask fair questions about abortion show that most people disapprove of an unlimited right to abortion. Indeed, they disapprove of the reasons for which most abortions are performed.

Last year, for example, Zogby International asked, "Which of the following statements most closely describes your own position on the issue of abortion?" Only 13 percent answered: "Abortions [should be] legal for any reason at any time during a woman's pregnancy."

That April 2004 poll found a total of 56 percent who would limit legal abortion to cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest, and another 25 percent who said abortion should be legal for any reason but not after three months. That is a total of 81 percent support for limits clearly inconsistent with Roe v. Wade.

It doesn't add up. Today most people say they support Roe v. Wade but 81% favor limits on abortion that Roe does not allow.

It is, as they say, a "teachable moment."

In January the U.S. Bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat launched a major advertising campaign called the "Second Look Project" to close the gap between people's misunderstanding of Roe v. Wade and their beliefs about abortion. The ads explain that abortion is legal throughout pregnancy and then ask the question, "Have we gone too far?"

The campaign is, admittedly, not a hard sell. But it doesn't need to be: it has the unvarnished truth on its side. The campaign is designed to present a basic fact about abortion to a "pro-choice" audience, and to let the facts speak for themselves.

The ads are appearing in the Washington metropolitan area Metro trains and buses and in national news media outlets. To view the ads and additional facts on abortion, see www.secondlookproject.org.

When the ads were first presented to the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Metro people didn't believe that abortion is legal through all nine months of pregnancy. They sent the ads to their legal department who didn't believe it either.

Finally, after weeks of investigation into the matter, word came back that the ads were approved. If Washington lawyers have no idea that abortion is legal throughout pregnancy, we can bank on the fact that the average person doesn't either.

Setting the record straight on Roe is absolutely crucial now, more than ever before. Sometime in the not-so-distant future there'll be a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

The "pro-choice" lobby and its allies in Congress will demand that any nominee promise to uphold Roe, citing the public's supposed support for Roe as justification for its unjust litmus test.

But the reality is, most people think an unlimited right to abortion is wrong. They just need to know it goes by the name of Roe v. Wade.

Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq., is director of planning and information for the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.