Planned Parenthood affilliate: most Americans oppose nearly all abortions
Contrary to the standard liberal rhetoric, which portrays the overwhelming majority of the American people as "pro-choice," a new CBS- sponsored poll shows that 55 percent of Americans oppose virtually all abortions in the United States.
The poll was conducted by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research organization affiliated with Planned Parenthood! It shows that fully 55 percent of the American people oppose the legality of abortion for the reasons for which 95 percent of American abortions are, in fact, performed!
Polls are notorious for the ease with which they are influenced by the way in which the question is posed. When the word "pro-choice" or phrases like "a woman's right to choose" are used, or when questions are asked about the overturning of Roe v. Wade (without dealing with the actual substance or implications of that decision), most polls show that the majority of the American public lining up on the pro-choice side. And yet, when the substance of the issue is honestly engaged, and people are asked whether abortions should be performed for this reason, or that reason, or for any reason, the opposite turns out to be the case.
The lesson, it seems to me, is that social conservatives need to do everything possible to define the issue in terms of its substance, and to make it as hard as possible for the social Left to define it in terms of platitudes and abstractions like "choice."
Incidentally, there is nothing particularly new in any of this. Polls on this issue have shown a similar abstraction/ concrete situation discrepancy ever since Roe v. Wade was first handed down. The trend, however, is toward the American public becoming even more pro-life when the issues are presented concretely: these results represent a three-point gain for the pro-life position over those of a similar poll taken by the same organization last July.
HT: SSBG
The poll was conducted by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research organization affiliated with Planned Parenthood! It shows that fully 55 percent of the American people oppose the legality of abortion for the reasons for which 95 percent of American abortions are, in fact, performed!
Polls are notorious for the ease with which they are influenced by the way in which the question is posed. When the word "pro-choice" or phrases like "a woman's right to choose" are used, or when questions are asked about the overturning of Roe v. Wade (without dealing with the actual substance or implications of that decision), most polls show that the majority of the American public lining up on the pro-choice side. And yet, when the substance of the issue is honestly engaged, and people are asked whether abortions should be performed for this reason, or that reason, or for any reason, the opposite turns out to be the case.
The lesson, it seems to me, is that social conservatives need to do everything possible to define the issue in terms of its substance, and to make it as hard as possible for the social Left to define it in terms of platitudes and abstractions like "choice."
Incidentally, there is nothing particularly new in any of this. Polls on this issue have shown a similar abstraction/ concrete situation discrepancy ever since Roe v. Wade was first handed down. The trend, however, is toward the American public becoming even more pro-life when the issues are presented concretely: these results represent a three-point gain for the pro-life position over those of a similar poll taken by the same organization last July.
HT: SSBG
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