A majority of Americans support the Mississippi pro-life law at the heart of the Supreme Court's battle over Roe v. Wade, a national pro-life leader told CNN Tuesday.
Mallory Carroll, vice president of communications for the Susan B. Anthony List, told CNN's Erin Burnett she hopes the five-vote majority of the Supreme Court holds and that the body does indeed overturn Roe, as a leaked draft opinion suggests.
Carroll also said the language of the Mississippi law is popular in surveys.
The anti-abortion group, Susan B. Anthony List, is pouring $72 million into the 2022 midterm elections, supporting candidates who oppose abortion rights. @ErinBurnett speaks with the group’s spokesperson, Mallory Carroll, in her first interview with CNN about abortion rights. pic.twitter.com/HzcmQ0roBD
— CNN (@CNN) May 4, 2022
"What we want to have is a really robust debate at the state level and in Congress about where there is consensus," Carroll said. "And most Americans do agree, according to recent polling, with Mississippi's 15-week marker. This is a point by which the unborn child can feel pain."
The Mississippi law prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy except in cases of fetal abnormality or medical emergency. The text of the law says abortions after 15 weeks mostly involve the "use of surgical instruments to crush and tear the unborn child apart."
An OnMessage survey last year found that 53 percent of American likely voters, when given a choice, would prefer a Republican candidate who supports a 15-week abortion ban compared to a Democratic candidate who "supports unlimited abortion up until the moment of birth." Only one-third of Americans (32 percent) in a Gallup survey last year said abortion should be legal "under any" circumstances.
Further, 55 percent of likely voters in the OnMessage survey said they are more likely to support such a law after hearing that "an unborn child has the capacity to feel pain" at 15 weeks.
Meanwhile, Carroll said the overturning of Roe would mean the court will have taken "their thumb" off the scale by allowing "states to pass laws that reflect the values of the people in the states."
"Certainly, I think it's going to energize people on both sides of this issue," Carroll said. "But historically, the intensity gap has favored pro-life candidates."
Medical science, she said, knows more "than we ever had before" about the "development of the child in the womb."
Related:
Supreme Court Has Votes to Overturn Roe in Draft Opinion: 'Pray They Stay Strong,' Pro-Lifers Urge
10 Christian Leaders React to Potential Overturning of Roe v. Wade
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Olga Kurbatova
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
