Presumably the reason for the story on abortion and public opinion written by the Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty was the release of the latest data from the National Opinion Research Center. Her story is worth analyzing particularly because as we are in the midst of a proliferation of pro-life proposals and, like most reporters, she misreads what is really taking place.
Okay, we know that most people are in the middle on abortion, although the way NORC rolls out its data greatly exaggerates those who supposedly agree women can have an abortion “for any reason” and minimizes the number who oppose all abortion. As such it necessarily pays short shrift to a reality that you can get from Gallup: the truth that a majority of the population opposes the reasons for which almost all abortions are performed.
So do we learn from the analysis provided by NORC (“Trends in Public Attitudes toward Abortion”) and Tumulty’s story?
First—and in many ways most revealing–guess which age group is the second most pro-life (after those over 65)? The youngest—those under 35! As has explained many times, young people’s opinion may have become more “liberal” on other social issues but not abortion. That speaks volumes.
Second, as we have emphasized for decades, although abortion is pegged as a “woman’s issue,” men favor abortion slightly more than women do.
Third, while there remains strong support for so-called “hard case” abortions, there is not a majority “when an abortion is sought because the woman believes she is too poor to have more children (a situation in which 45 percent say they approve of an abortion) or doesn’t want to marry the father (42 percent),” Tumulty reports.
Four, Tumulty observes that support for abortion radically (my word) diminishes in the second and third trimester. She cites the latest Gallup poll which found “support dropped to 27 percent in the second trimester and to 14 percent in the third.”
This is important in and of itself, but especially in the context of Tumulty’s basic narrative: that Texas is in the process of passing “one of the most restrictive and closely watched abortion measures in the country.” How so?
A key component of HB2, now being debated in the Texas Senate, is a ban on abortions on children capable of feeling pain — after 20 weeks. Both Gallup and a Texas newspaper’s poll show great support for a ban on abortions pass 20 weeks—62% in Texas.
The ultimate advantage pro-lifers have (beyond the instinctual resistance most people have to abortion) is that we do not look in either/or terms but in both/and terms. We want win-win solutions, while pro-abortionists’ “solution” is death.
What happens when conversation “center on the “fetus”? It means that there is recognition that there is a second life involved, a wholly innocent life—and that moral and ethical considerations cannot be made in a vacuum.
Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News