It seems that current events have "galvanized undecided voters into the pro-life camp."
Zogby poll from early this month, results published today show that there is much more common ground in support of limitations on abortion than the mainstream media would want you to know.
The authors don't mention that South Dakota passed their ban on abortions except to save the life of the mother the week before. The "galvanization" is blamed on Supreme Court confirmation hearings. But, I'd expect that the ban would "galvanize" a few people, too. Since this poll was conducted March 10-14, and the
Governor signed the bill into law about the 6th of March, we can assume that these results reflect any changes due to the ban.
Zogby polled 30,000 plus and estimate that the results are accurate to within 0.6%. 42% of respondents say they will vote for a Democrat this fall, while 40% plan to vote for a Republican candidate for their Federal Congressman. And yet, 45% do not believe that a right to abortion is in the Constitution and 46% believe that it is.
From the article:
"There is absolutely no way a presidential or a congressional candidate running for office can grow their base if they insist on championing the abortion issue," Mr. O'Leary said. The poll found a majority of respondents on 16 of the 20 questions took an anti-abortion position, including:
- Parental notification laws that were recently upheld by the Supreme
Court (55% support for girls 18 yrs. & younger; 69% for girls 16 yrs.
old & younger; only 36% and 23% disagree respectively)
- Abortion ends a human life (59% agree; 29% disagree)
- The prohibition of federal funds for abortions abroad (69% agree with
the prohibition; 21% disagree)
- Abortion because of the sex of the fetus (86% agree should be illegal;
10% disagree should be illegal)
- Requiring insurance plans to cover abortions where the life of the
mother is not endangered (56% disagree with such a requirement; 12%
agree)
- When life begins (50% believe it begins at conception; 19% believe life
begins at birth)
- A new federal partial-birth abortion bill (50% want to see another
bill; 39% don't want to see another bill)
- Requiring counseling about a mother's options before undergoing an
abortion (55% agree with such a counseling requirement; 37% disagree)
- A 24-hour waiting period (56% agree with waiting period; 37% disagree)
- Federal & state financing of abortions for poor women (51% disagree
with financing; 37% disagree)
- Laws that charge a person who kills a pregnant woman with two murders
(64% agree with such laws; 23% disagree)
The poll results suggest a shift in the electorate away from abortion rights over the past decade, Mr. O'Leary said. They also suggest that congressional Democrats who champion abortion rights could lose as much as 20 percent support from the electorate.
Thanks to Jivin Jehosaphat over at Pro-life Blogs for the lead.
2 comments:
I think post-abortion experience is reaching a tipping point. It takes how many years for the typical post-abortion woman to "turn?" 7? 10? So though in the short term every abortion generates money and grudging support, long-term every abortion risks generating a backlash against the hurt.
That's a really good question. I think I'll ask some of the women who nurture other women who are post-abortion to look into the time frame.
I know I didn't grieve for my miscarriage for almost 18 years. Before that it was just a mix of denial and guilt for my mixed feelings at the time.
But miscarriage is not the subject of nearly so much heated emotion and politics - or headlines. It's almost as though we're supposed to pretend nothing happened.
(I was newly married and 18 and couldn't help but have mixed feelings about blessing vs. not-blessing. We don't talk about that subject enough, either.)
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