Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
Gallup came out with its annual poll on whether people identify as pro-life or pro-choice:
PRINCETON, NJ -- The 41% of Americans who now identify themselves as "pro-choice" is down from 47% last July and is one percentage point below the previous record low in Gallup trends, recorded in May 2009. Fifty percent now call themselves "pro-life," one point shy of the record high, also from May 2009.
The poll has always shown some volatility, although it's worth noting that the first data points from 1996 are 56% pro-choice and 33% pro-life, so the trend line is impossible to ignore.
I'm curious why we're seeing such a dip in people willing to identify themselves as pro-choice.
The president is the most supportive of abortion rights we've ever seen. The Secretary of Health and Human Services has declared a "war" on those who don't support abortion on demand. And the media are so in bed with Planned Parenthood that we saw their greatest supporters thanking each other for their work defaming the Susan G. Komen foundation when it dared try to avoid funding the country's largest abortion provider.
So why do these polls suggest that people are moving away from the pro-choice label when all the cool kids are embracing it?
I remember when I was younger, and identifying as pro-life, that some of my more liberal teachers explained to me that this was a settled issue and that I was the wrong side of history. It's a cliche of progressive thinkers that history always moves in one direction. But anyone who has studied life issues knows that a widespread embrace of eugenics, for instance, is not as loved as it once was by the Nazis and other political leaders in the West. Are we seeing the same turning away from abortion culture? And, if so, why?
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Oct '10
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
I hope I'm not changing the subject, so I'll make my comment brief: it would be nice (and will never happen) to see the media report that 72% of Americans favor some measure of restriction on abortion, according to that Gallup poll.
Forget the pro-life/pro-choice labels that (as your question suggests) are nebulous or misleading. The plain fact is that three-quarters of America favor restrictions of some kind on abortion. THAT is how it should be reported.
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 3:43pmDec '11
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
For the same reasons people turned away from slavery that had existed since people did. At some point the humanity of other people in undeniable. We know more about gestation than we have at any point in the past, and this information is in textbooks. Its much harder now to obscure the humanity of a fetus, which makes the concept of fetal personhood easier to conclude. When you as a small child saw the face of a fetus, its much harder to conclude that it is a cancerous growth.
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
dittoheadadt: Forget the pro-life/pro-choice labels that (as your question suggests) are nebulous or misleading. The plain fact is that three-quarters of America favor restrictions of some kind on abortion. THAT is how it should be reported. · 4 minutes ago
Edited 2 minutes ago
Perhaps this explains why pro-lifers have been more able to make gains-- via incrementalism toward where most Americans would prefer abortion law end up.
Nov '11
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
I have seen Zombie over at PJMedia suggest that one of the reasons for this is
1) Pro-Lifers are much more likely to be religious, and have lots of kids
2) Children of Pro-Lifers are much more likely to be Pro-Life
I think he also stated that mentioning this reasoning on Leftist message boards results in heads exploding (among other things).
Jan '11
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
I can think of a couple of reasons.
First is the Roe Effect, that was explained by James Taranto of WSJ. Basically the Roe Effect is that people who have abortions have fewer babies, which means the "pro-choice" share of the population goes down.
Second, there is no universal "American" attitude about abortion. Instead, different demographics have different attitudes. When one of those sub-groups loses its share of the population, the overall total goes down ... but that doesn't mean that all Americans have shifted their opinions.
That's a logical fallacy. You can't conclude anything about the individuals in a group based on some change in the whole group.
More likely, it only means that the feminist and semi-feminists are starting to die off, and the generations following them aren't nearly as strident about abortion as the originals were.
The argument hasn't changed, just the arguers.
Jun '10
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
I don't think we can eliminate the effect of sonograms from the debate.
A look at one of them demolishes the "blob of cells" arguments. As early as a few weeks after conception, it's clear to all (except for those who will not see) that the fetus is a small human being, with all the moral implications he or she brings with its humanness.
Others have made the point, but attitudes about abortion are more nuanced than yes/no (I am against, with a few, very narrow exceptions). Americans have always opposed the abortion-on-demand regime imposed on us by Justice Blackmun and his cronies. A large majority have always opposed late-term abortions.
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 5:00pmMar '12
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
How do you feel about the British system? I think we have abortion only if there is a medical need but doctors can interpret medical need fairly broadly. I think that it's somehow different to the American system in that it doesn't say that there is a right to an abortion which allows society to use the law to express our dislike of it. What do you think?
Dec '11
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
I would concur with tabula rasa on the effects on sonograms, we have a generation of kids growing up where the first picture of their brother or sister is a sonogram. Tens to hundreds of thousands of middle to upper class kids growing up seeing their or their siblings lives beginning in the womb. And these are the policy makers of the future.
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
This reminds me of how surprised many of my non-American friends are when they find out how extreme our abortion laws are. I don't think any country -- except where abortion isn't just permitted through 9 months of pregnancy but also occasionally forced on women -- has it more radical.
Jun '10
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
This reminds me of how surprised many of my non-American friends are when they find out how extreme our abortion laws are. I don't think any country -- except where abortion isn't just permitted through 9 months of pregnancy but also occasionally forced on women -- has it more radical. · 2 minutes ago
Everyone should read The Party of Death by Ramesh Ponnoru if they want a comprehensive look at the abortion issue in America, including the fact that Roe theoretically limited abortion-on-demand to the first trimester, but then created an exception (health, including mental health, of the mother) that completely consumed the limitation.
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 5:27pmSep '10
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
This reminds me of how surprised many of my non-American friends are when they find out how extreme our abortion laws are. I don't think any country -- except where abortion isn't just permitted through 9 months of pregnancy but also occasionally forced on women -- has it more radical. · 14 minutes ago
Canada is the worst: no abortion law at all. Do whatever you want.
Sep '10
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
Two words:
Kermit Gosnell explain the drop in pro look the other way nothing to see here folks
May '10
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
I think you hit the nail on the head here. Most Americans are somewhere between the all-or-nothing views on abortion. The reason why the debate has swung pro-life is that the pro-choice side defends the indefensible. 14 year olds having abortions without notifying parents? Partial-birth abortion? "Post-birth" abortion? Huge government subsidies to highly profitable abortion providers like Planned Parenthood? Forcing churches to violate their beliefs? The Left has vastly overplayed its hand and will continue to do so--killing a fetus is the most sacred act of progressivism.
Dec '10
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
Pat in Obamaland
I think you hit the nail on the head here. Most Americans are somewhere between the all-or-nothing views on abortion. The reason why the debate has swung pro-life is that the pro-choice side defends the indefensible. 14 year olds having abortions without notifying parents? Partial-birth abortion? "Post-birth" abortion? Huge government subsidies to highly profitable abortion providers like Planned Parenthood? Forcing churches to violate their beliefs? The Left has vastly overplayed its hand and will continue to do so--killing a fetus is the most sacred act of progressivism. · 4 minutes ago
Woo hoo, Pat! You go!!
Pat nailed it. It's the extremism of the pro-choicers which lends more credibility to the pro-life movement.
Some of us tried to express this to Obama-inclined Catholics, but they didn't believe us. Now they do.
Mar '12
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
What I am seeing with some regularity is that Protestants, especially younger Evangelicals, have migrated to the pro-life position. I am not under the impression that this is issue is first among equals if it comes to voting, but it may have some impetus in deciding between candidates.
I also am seeing that those same Evangelicals are less likely than their Moral Majority predecessors to vote Republican (or conservative), therefore being "pro-life" is not necessarily a harbinger of how they will vote.
If that is true, the move toward a pro-life position carries no weight because nothing will change, and that would be too bad.
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
No one who takes ten minutes to think about what it involves is really comfortable with abortion -- which explains why the "pro-choice" crowd is always frothing at the mouth. Were it not for the exercise that used to be called consciousness-raising the entire pro-choice effort would collapse. You have to be consumed with rage to forget what you are doing when you snuff out the life of an innocent unborn child.
Mar '12
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
I think people who don't think that a foetus counts as a life or counts as less of a life than that of a woman quite reasonably think that banning abortion is a large imposition on women.
May '10
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
The millions of women who have had abortions and found the "choice" to bring a myriad of problems rather than solving everything probably has something to do with the changing poll numbers too.
Jun '10
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
Shiney
I think people who don't think that a foetus counts as a life or counts as less of a life than that of a woman quite reasonably think that banning abortion is a large imposition on women.
Anyone who doesn't think a fetus is alive is in serious denial of reality.
The pro-choice position is that a mother has a right to kill her unborn child at any point prior to birth. If that's what you believe, you should say so, and defend your position. Saying that it's not really alive, or denying that abortion kills a living being, means you're either confused or lying.
May '12
Re: Record Low Identify As "Pro-Choice." Why?
I think it has to do with the prevalence and abuse of abortion more than anything else. Growing up both liberal and pro-choice my turning point began when reading a pamphlet that described and encouraged abortion as a method of contraception and specifically targeted young mothers. I believe it was from Planned Parenthood. While I cannot say I am fully pro-life (yet) I find this mentality to be utterly abhorrent. It's as if abortion is a simple decision requiring little, if any, thought.