CNN Poll Finds Majority Say They're Pro-Life, Abortion Key 2008 Issue

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation for CNN earlier this month find that a majority of Americans say they are pro-life when it comes to the issue of abortion. The survey also shows abortion is a key issue for the 2008 presidential campaign and that pro-life voters are more resolute than abortion advocates.

When asked to self-identify as "pro-life" or "pro-choice" on the issue of abortion, 50 percent of Americans call themselves pro-life while just 45 percent say otherwise.

Another two percent said they didn't know what the terms meant and two percent more felt they were a combination of the two.

Asked whether certain political issues were important to their vote for president next year, a majority said abortion was important and abortion was thought to be more pertinent than stem cell research.

Of the 1,028 adults conducted by telephone on May 4-6, 51 percent said abortion was important with 27 percent saying it is extremely important and 24 percent saying it's very important.

Another 24 percent said abortion is moderately important and only 24 percent said abortion is not that important to their vote.

That split was higher than the percentage who said stem cell research is a pertinent issue with 48 percent saying it is important and only 20 percent saying it's extremely important. A higher 28 percent said stem cell research was just moderately important.

CNN's poll also indicated that Americans who are pro-life show more passion and intensity about their views than those who back abrotion -- translating into more support for pro-life canddiates.

"People who describe themselves as pro-life are twice as likely to say the issue will be extremely important to them than people who call themselves pro-choice. Abortion-rights opponents have intensity on their side," CNN said about the intensity question, which it did not post in its poll summary information.

The poll also asked Americans about their thoughts on the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the federal ban on partial-birth abortions.

It found that 66 percent think "government should make this procedure illegal" while just 28 percent favor keeping partial-birth abortions legal.

That compares favorably to a similar question CNN asked in October 2003 when the split on making partial-birth abortions illegal was 68-25 percent.

The terms ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ are confusing. They don’t give a clue that they are about abortion, because that word is never mentioned. People usually want to phrase their viewpoint in a positive way, so we have pro-life, not anti-abortion. No one wants to be against anything. But the pro-choice group have the advantage, here. They already can frame their side of the argument as positive, they are pro-abortion. The fact that they don’t use this term says a lot about how they themselves feel about abortion.

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