Posted on 01/20/2003 11:14:17 AM PST by Keyes2000mt
A recent poll shows 68% of Americans favor restoring legal protection to unborn children, with 44% strongly in favor. The poll conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide is seriously flawed. Firstly, it provides the polled people with information the average American does not have by asking them the question in light of "medical advances that reveal the unborn child's body and facial features in detail". This is a push poll, a nice pro-life push poll but it is flawed because most people don't have the information used in the poll. It did produce the results that Wirthlin was looking for, however.
Of course, this Wirthlin poll isn't the first nor will it be the last to ask biased questions on the abortion issue, going through pollingreport.com abortion polls, one finds many unexplainable paradoxes in the American viewpoint on abortion and this is due to bad polling. I'll examine each poll in the archive and point out its flaws and also what it tells the pro-life movement as the 30th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaches.
CNN/USA Today Gallup poll:
"Do you think abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?"
24-Always Legal, 58-Sometimes Legal, Always Illegal-18%, No Opinion-1%
Does this mean that 82% of Americans support legal abortion or that 76% think abortion should be illegal under most circumstance. The poll doesn't tell us. "Sometimes Legal" can include both the belief that abortion should be legal until the 3rd Trimester, and also the belief that it should only be available to save the life of the mother. This question is meaningless.
The poll then asks in which instances, abortion should be legal or illegal and here are the answers.
"When the woman's life is endangered"
85%-Legal, 11%-Illegal, 2% Depends, 2% Not Sure
"When the woman's physical health is endangered"
77%-Legal, 17%-Illegal, 4% Depends, 2% Not Sure
"When the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest"
76%-Legal, 19%-Illegal, 2% Depends, 3% Not Sure
"When the woman's mental health is endangered"
63%-Legal, 32%-Illegal, 3% Depends, 2% Not Sure
"When there is evidence that the baby may be physically impaired"
56%-Legal, 37%-Illegal, 4% Depends, 3% Not Sure
"When there is evidence that the baby may be mentally impaired"
55%-Legal, 39%-Illegal, 3% Depends, 3% Not Sure
"When the woman or family cannot afford to raise the child?"
35%-Legal, 61%-Illegal, 2% Depends, 2% Not Sure
These are good questions with some exceptions. Mental Health is so small a number of abortions it is sad that it was included. Pro-Lifers should be concerned by the support for abortion in case of disability. It shows that many Americans are taking a quality of life not sanctity of life ethic.
The most important question is the last one where 61% said they would oppose abortions for purely economic reasons. The big story in this poll that's been missed is that more than 60% rejected the idea of killing for comfort and convenience and that's what most abortions are about. You take all of the other abortion types in this survey and you come up with less than 10% of abortions. The headline on this poll should be, "61% of Americans oppose 90% of abortions" but the Clinton News Network wouldn't write that. In addition, this correlates well with a 2001 ABC poll which showed 55% of Americans oppose abortions if the reason for having one is that the mother's not married and doesn't want the baby.
The poll then turns to the issue of trimesters in pregnancy and finds support for abortion as follows for each trimester:
First Three Months: 66%-Legal, 29%-Illegal, 3%-Depends, 2%-Not Sure
Second Three Months: 25%-Legal, 68%-Illegal, 4%-Depends, 3%-Not Sure
Third Three Months: 10%-Legal, 84%-Illegal, 4%-Depends, 2%-Not Sure
Though other polling data argues against the suppor for first trimester abortion (even within the same poll), this does reflect more on the confused state of the American people than anything else.
They then ask a question about support for different abortion restrictions:
"A law requiring doctors to inform patients about alternatives to abortion before performing the procedure"
88%-Support, 11%-Oppose, 1%-Not Sure
"A law requiring women seeking abortions to wait 24 hours before having the procedure done"
78%-Support, 19%-Oppose, 3%-Not Sure
"A law requiring women under 18 to get parental consent for any abortion"
73%-Support, 24%-Oppose, 3%-Not Sure
"A law requiring that the husband of a married woman be notified if she decides to have an abortion"
72%-Support, 26%-Oppose, 2%-Not Sure
"A law which would make it illegal to perform a specific abortion procedure conducted in the last six months of pregnancy known as a 'partial-birth abortion,' except in cases necessary to save the life of the mother"
70%-Support, 25%-Oppose, 5%-Not Sure
"A constitutional amendment to ban abortion in all circumstances, except when necessary to save the life of the mother"
38%-Support, 59%-Oppose, 3%-Not Sure
All good questions except there is one missing. The last question tells us people would not support a Human Life Amendment that didn't contain an exception for rape or incest, but what support would be obtained with a rape or incest exception? No answer. The last answer still brings into conflict with the First Trimester abortion question. How can only 29% oppose abortion in the first trimester while 38% would support ending all abortion except to save the life of the mother.
Finally, there's this question
"As you may know, in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a landmark decision on abortion known as Roe versus Wade. Do you think that decision was a good thing or a bad thing for the country?"
53%-Good, 30%-Bad, 17%-Not Sure
This poll tells them nothing about the decision other than it was about abortion. Does the average American know what Roe v. Wade is about? A better question by the LA Times that tells people more about the decision shows 46% supporting, 37% opposing, and the rest indifferent or not sure. This is the power of words and information.
Then we have a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll from 2002:
"On the issue of abortion, would you say you are more pro-life or more pro-choice?"
This is a meaningless question and because it doesn't define either positions. Whenever the question is asked, the response is so wildly varied that its not believable.
Fox took the poll in June, 1999 first and pro-life was ahead 44-42% and then in July, 2000 pro-choice was ahead 54-38 and in January, 2001 the lead had shrunk to 47-42. In a similar poll conducted by CNN-Time in July, 2001, pro-life had the lead 47-46. Do American opinions on abortion change that rapidly? No, the terms are undefined and both sound nice to people on the face of it but because they're not clearly defined, people will define themselves according to what they think sounds best at the moment.
Then there's an ABC/Beliefnet Poll
"Do you think abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases, or illegal in all cases?"
Results:
31%-Legal in Most, 23%-Illegal in Most, 22%-Legal in All, 20%-Illegal in All
The problem with this question is what do most American think is most? From the media you'd think it's the hard cases where the health and life of the mother are endangered or rape or incest has occurred which isn't the case.
NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll
"Which of the following best represents your views about abortion? The choice on abortion should be left up to the woman and her doctor. Abortion should be legal only in cases in which pregnancy results from rape or incest or when the life of the woman is at risk. OR, Abortion should be illegal in all circumstances."
57%-Left up to woman and doctor
29%-Rape and Incest
12%-Illegal in all
2%-Not Sure
This is a loaded question, the term "woman and her doctor" tells us that. It makes it sound like this is a purely medical decision when it usually is not.
Here's another loaded question:
"Let me read you two positions on the issue of abortion. Between these positions, which do you tend to side with more? Position A: Government should pass more laws that restrict the availability of abortions. Position B: The government should not interfere with a woman's access to abortion."
30%-Restrict Availability
65%-Not Interfere with Access
In this poll, the issue's not abortion but government interference. Left out of the equation entirely is the unborn child and the answer is meaningless only telling us that people generally don't like government interference in anything. Try asking the same thing with prostitution and you'll get a similar answer.
Polls can't tell us how to live or how to govern, what they tell us best is how to communicate our ideas:
1) American are solidly against abortion after the first trimester of pregnancy. While the work of lawmakers in pursuing a ban on one particular late-term abortion procedure has been noble, it's also been timid compared to where the American people are. Nearly 70% of Americans believe we ought not to have abortion after the first trimester except in very rare circumstances, so why are we playing around with one procedure when the American people are solidly on our side to ban them all. Congress should act immediately to enact a bill removing bans on second and third trimester abortions from the purview of Federal Court jurisdiction, so that states can begin to stop all abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy.
2) Americans don't like abortion for the sake of convenience, but thanks to thirty years of lies from the left, many believe that abortions are done only to save the life of the mother or for hard cases. Its time to let the American people know the truth. We have to constantly hammer home the numbers and the facts. More than 90% of abortions are done for pure convenience. No threats to physical or mental health, no fetal abnormalities, just pure convenience and economic benefit.
3) The first poll cited, the highly inaccurate Wirthlin Poll does not tell us where the American people are on the issue of abortion but where they can be. We need to let people know what science has told us about the unborn child and its development in the womb.
4) How many times have you seen a race where a Democrat's behind and as a last-ditch desperate attempt, they play the abortion card? They run ads showing nominal Republicans talk about how they're supporting the Democrat because it's important to protect the right-to-choose. The Republican responds timidly or not at all in most cases. What they ought to do is respond strongly and expose pro-abortion extremism. Most liberal Democratic politicians have never met an abortion they didn't like and have never found one abortion regulation that was reasonable or sensible and on issues like parental notification and consent they're running up against 70-80% of Americans and Republicans are fools for not calling them out on it.
The debate over abortion is winnable, but for too long we've let the pro-abortion side define it. It's time to bring attention to the unborn child in this debate and expose the fact that the so-called "pro-choice" movement does not seek to make abortion "safe, legal, and rare" but rather views the dropping abortion rate as a problem that must be addressed and believes that any regulation of abortion is anathema. When the American people realize this, we will win.
Yesterday morning, Georgle Will said on ABC that "abortion is the most frequently performed surgical procedure in the USA" and that "one out of 5 US pregnancies ends in abortion." There was NO FURTHER COMMENT by anyone on This Week. He then went on with some lame argument that the Supreme Court should overturn R v Wade because this is a "states rights" issue and the states will probably regulate abortion just fine -- since they were already moving that way before R v Wade was written in the first place.
I am appalled that this is the situation in the US today -- when hardly any one will speak for the unborn. And those that do say that it is OK for the SC to overturn the decision because someone else will enact it any way.
Just this week in Milwaukee a girl gave birth and sent her boyfriend out to leave the baby at a hospital, church, or police station. He dumped the newborn boy in a Port-a-potty, instead, on a night when the temperature was in the single digits. Only by the Grace of God and a determined dog walker was the child saved from freezing to death.
Now the boy's family is saying that he "made a mistake" because he was scared and the girl's family wants custody of the child.
We have raised several generations of people who are so callous and so irresponsible that they think nothing about treating their children this way. The pro-aborts played on everyone's sympathy about not being judgemental, worrying about the victim of rape or incest, about children having children, until they got this law passed. WHEN IS THIS NATION GOING TO CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO THE INNOCENT, HELPLESS BABIES?
Only God knows, afraidfortherepublic. I was in catatonic shock when the Born Alive Infant Protection Act was brought before Congress (the purpose of which was to prevent healthy babies actually born during late-term abortions from being left to die - usually in a pile of dirty rags), was voted against by 25 or so Democrats. These slimy and evil people actually were voting to permit infanticide - of born babies! I also am indeed afraidfortherepublic when we teach our kids to go have sex - and that if a baby is created (the most Godly act we are called to undertake) - there's nothing wrong in wiping one's own child from God's slate. We have become monsters - and we are not even aware of it. I pray that such will change - but we need prophets and brave men and women of courage and conviction to bring such about.
If you ask a person, "Do you favor or oppose killing babies during the time from implantation until two years of age", and the person you ask then asks for a series of qualifiers, you're up against something you haven't addressed. That's what 'choice' is all about, qualifiers, ways to condone the killing, the choice, ways to absolve guilt, ways to cite an exception clause that really doesn't exist before God.
Agreed. But since we're re-defining terms, let's call it by the correct name. It's neither 'Pro-Choice' nor 'Pro-Abortion', it's 'Pro-Death'.
Well put.
Agreed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.