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Poll: Where Michigan voters stand on abortion ruling, contraception, SCOTUS job approval

Survey finds voters back Supreme Court term and age limits

Abortion-rights and anti-abortion demonstrators gather outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. Abortion, guns and religion _ a major change in the law in any one of these areas would have made for a fateful Supreme Court term. In its first full term together, the court's conservative majority ruled in all three and issued other significant decisions limiting the government's regulatory powers. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File) (Gemunu Amarasinghe, Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

A majority of Michigan voters disapprove of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and most believe the court is delving into politics, not legal reasoning, according to a new WDIV/Detroit News poll.

Results of the July 2022 survey shows a unpopular opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court following a 5-4 ruling to overturn a longstanding constitutional right to an abortion in the country, allowing states to ban the procedure.

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Here are some of the key findings on the Supreme Court, abortion and other related issues:

Michigan voters oppose abortion ruling

  • Only 34.2% of Michigan voters support the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v Wade, while 57.7% oppose it being overturned. 52.1% strongly oppose the court’s decision. 67.5% of Independent voters oppose the court’s decision.
    • 62.5% of women oppose the court’s decision and 52.6% of men oppose the decision.
  • When asked how important a candidate’s position on overturning Roe v Wade would be to how they decide to vote, 86.2% said it would be important while only 12.6% said it would not be important. 57.2% of voters said a candidate’s position on Roe would be VERY IMPORTANT.

SCOTUS has a credibility problem

  • 52.8% of Michigan voters disapprove of the job being done by the Supreme Court, while 35.9% approve.
    • Democratic voters strongly disapprove of the court’s job, while Republican voters approve. 53% of Independent voters disapprove.
  • When asked if the Supreme Court makes decisions based on sound legal reasoning or do they make decisions based on politics, 59.7% of voters said the Supreme Court makes political decisions compared to 26.4% that make decisions based on sound legal reasoning.

Voters support SCOTUS term/age limits

  • 67% of Michigan voters said they would support placing term or age limits on Supreme Court justices, including 54.2% who strongly support the idea.

Interpretation of constitution

  • Voters were asked if justices should interpret the words of the constitution to reflect modern society or to reflect what they believe the founders meant when they wrote and passed it, Michigan voters were noticeably split.
    • 45.6% said they should interpret words as they were originally intended. 40.8% said they should interpret words to reflect modern society.
      • The majority of voters who identified as Democrats said they should reflect modern society, while a majority of Republicans said they should interpret words as they were originally intended.

Michigan voters strongly oppose taking away contraceptives

  • 89.9% of Michigan voters said the U.S. Supreme Court should allow the Griswold decision that legalized contraceptive access to married couples to remain in place.
    • The survey found no support among any demographic group for overturning the Griswold decision.

Methodology:

The Glengariff Group, Inc. conducted a Michigan statewide survey of November 2022 likely general election voters. The 600 sample, live operator telephone survey was conducted on July 5-8, 2022 and has a margin of error of +/-4.0% with a 95% level of confidence. 26.0% of respondents were contacted via landline telephone. 74.0% of respondents were contacted via cell phone telephone. This survey was commissioned by WDIV Local 4 News and the Detroit News.


About the Author
Ken Haddad headshot

Ken Haddad has proudly been with WDIV/ClickOnDetroit since 2013. He also authors the Morning Report Newsletter and various other newsletters, and helps lead the WDIV Insider team. He's a big sports fan and is constantly sipping Lions Kool-Aid.

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