Roe v Huh? Most Under 30 Don't Know Roe v. Wade was About Abortion

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Next week will mark the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. But, as new research from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Poll has revealed, most people under 30 don’t know that the landmark case legalized abortion in the United States. 62 percent of Americans (both men and women) knew what Roe v. Wade was all about, but only 44 percent of Americans under 30 knew the case dealt with abortion in some way or another. 41 percent thought the case was related to the death penalty, the environment or simply didn’t know. I mean, it could be worse. They could have thought it was some kind of aquatic athletic dilemma, right?

Though this is a little scary, the good news is that the same report found that 63 percent of Americans believe that Roe v. Wade should not be completely overturned, compared to 29 percent who believe it should be.

But we can’t exactly sit on our laurels yet. As we all know, abortion rights are under attack daily. And as the Guttmacher Institute demonstrated in their own study, 2012 saw the second-highest number of abortion restrictions ever enacted (with 2011 coming in first.) Another scary statistic from the Pew study is that while 74 percent of those who want to overturn Roe consider abortion a “crucial issue” or “one of many crucial issues,” only 31 percent of those who support Roe v Wade consider it crucial.

Most Americans under 30 don’t know Roe was about abortion [Washington Post]

 
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