53% of Texans oppose overturning Roe, new poll says

Hundreds of protesters gathered Saturday outside Dallas City Hall as part of a nationwide series of "Bans Off Our Bodies" marches in response to the pending Supreme Court opinion.

Why it matters: Politico obtained a draft document of the Supreme Court's opinion earlier this month. Texas is one of 13 states with a so-called "trigger law" that would make performing the procedure a felony within 30 days of a SCOTUS decision.

Meanwhile, opposition to overturning Roe increased among Texans since February, according to the latest Dallas Morning News-UT Tyler poll released Saturday.

What they're saying: Justice Clarence Thomas told a Dallas conference of conservative and libertarian groups that trust inside the Supreme Court has been irrevocably broken by the "tremendously bad" leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

Thomas, a fierce opponent of abortion rights, compared the leaked draft opinion to "infidelity" during a conversation with his former law clerk, John Yoo, at Friday's conference.

• "You begin to look over your shoulder," Thomas said of the breach.

Thomas also said conservatives wouldn't protest outside justices' houses as abortion-rights groups have, Axios' Jacob Knutson writes from audio posted by Reason Magazine.

• "You would never visit Supreme Court justices' houses when things didn't go our way. We didn't throw temper tantrums."

The other side: A Denton gynecologist said patients are already asking about their options if Roe v. Wade is overturned, per NBC5.

• "This is something we never thought, as physicians, would happen. Where we would be forced to try to do something to take care of our patients that someone made illegal," Dr. Joseph Valenti told NBC.

By the numbers: Of polled Texans, 53% say they oppose overturning the 1973 Supreme Court case, compared to 50% in February.

• 73% of Democrats said Roe should not be overturned versus 35% of Republicans who said the same.
• 1,232 registered voters responded to the poll conducted May 2-10.