{"id":185932,"date":"2018-07-25T12:33:07","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T17:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=185932"},"modified":"2018-07-25T12:33:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T17:33:23","slug":"biased-roe-v-wade-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/biased-roe-v-wade-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal expert: ‘Biased questioning’ likely skewed NBC\/WSJ Roe v. Wade poll"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

(Newsbusters<\/a>) When it comes to polling, sometimes the questions reveal more than the answers.\u00a0On Monday, an NBC<\/a>\/WSJ<\/a><\/em> poll\u00a0found that 71% of voters support Roe v. Wade<\/em>, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the U.S. on a federal level. That should be a surprising number. But then again, perhaps\u00a0not \u2013 simply because of the poll\u2019s wording.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The poll came after President Trump\u2019s Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who many in the media<\/a> say could enable the court to overturn Roe v. Wade<\/em>. After an inquiry about the poll, NBC News journalist Carrie Dann responded that voters were presented with the following prompt:<\/p>\n

“The Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe versus Wade decision established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, at least in the first three months of pregnancy. Would you like to see the Supreme Court completely overturn its Roe versus Wade decision, or not?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, voters weren\u2019t just asked if Roe v. Wade<\/em> should or should not be overturned. They were told what Roe v. Wade<\/em> was: a ruling that\u00a0\u201cestablished a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ: Majority of Americans don’t know what Roe v. Wade actually means<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

That wording was charged.\u00a0To say Roe v. Wade<\/em> should be overturned was to say that a \u201cwoman\u2019s constitutional right\u201d should be overturned. A more neutral or \u201cbetter phrasing\u201d might have described Roe v. Wade<\/em> as a decision that \u201clegalized abortion nationwide,\u201d pro-life lawyer Catherine Glenn Foster told the MRC.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the spectrum, the equivalent might be if voters were polled on a pro-life law that asked about \u201can unborn baby\u2019s constitutional right to life<\/a>?\u201d That could\u00a0be hard to oppose too \u2013 if only because of the wording.<\/p>\n

Wall\u00a0Street Journal <\/em>reporter Michael C. Bender confirmed the same polling question [was distributed] via email. If voters responded \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno,\u201d they were also asked \u201cdo you feel strongly about that or not?\u201d<\/p>\n