U.S. adults' opinion on the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the midterm elections 2022

In response to leaked documents from May 3, 2022 which indicated the United States Supreme Court's intention to overturn Roe v. Wade, U.S. adults were asked what impact this will have on the upcoming midterm elections. 43 percent of surveyed adults felt that the overturning of Roe would help the Democratic Party in some way, while 19 percent felt that it would help the Republican Party.

Roe v. Wade

The 1973 Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade established the right to terminate a pregnancy. The Court issued a 7-2 majority ruling based on the due process clause of the 14th amendment and that a fundamental right to privacy protects individuals from government interference when seeking abortion services. Roe is often associated with another Supreme Court case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 ruling that upheld Roe, and introduced fetal viability to the law, which forbade states from regulating abortion until 24 weeks of pregnancy. Despite declining rates of abortion, in the United States and broad support for legal abortion access, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey were overturned by the Supreme Court in June 2022 with the ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a decision seen as being widely unpopular.

2022 midterm election

In November 2022, Americans will head to the polls for the congressional midterm elections. Support for abortion rights tends to fall along party lines with Democrats being in favor and Republicans being opposed. With 26 states either criminalizing or poised to criminalize abortion, 36 million women will lose their access to safe abortion services. While the party in power has historically lost seats in midterm elections, the wide popularity of abortion rights could prove advantageous to Democrats. Women voters in particular could play a key role in the upcoming congressional elections given a 2018 poll that found 68 percent of women were in favor of the protections granted by Roe. In addition to the 43 percent of surveyed Americans who said that they thought the overturning of Roe would help Democrats, 36 percent indicated that it would make them more likely to vote in this year's midterm elections.