Posted on 09/10/2007 7:37:57 AM PDT by presidio9
More adults in the United States believe pregnancy termination should be allowed at least in some occasions, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 52 per cent of respondents think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, up seven points since February.
Conversely, 43 per cent of respondents think the procedure should be illegal in all or most cases, down seven points in six months.
A Supreme Court ruling in 1973 gave American women the right to an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, and regulated the procedure during the second trimester "in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health." In the third trimester, a state can choose to proscribe abortion, except when necessary "for the preservation of the life or health of the mother."
In April, a Supreme Court ruling effectively banned partial birth abortion—a procedure performed in the late-term of pregnancy when the fetus can survive outside the womb—without making an exception for the health of the mother. 75 per cent of respondents believe partial birth abortion should be illegal.
On Sept. 7, Pope Benedict XVI voiced opposition to pregnancy termination during a visit to Austria, saying, "Life is a fundamental human right. Abortion, consequently cannot be a human right—it is the very opposite." The Pope also referred to the social problems that sometimes lead to an abortion, saying, "I do not close my eyes to the difficulties and the conflicts which many women are experiencing, and I realize that the credibility of what we say depends on what the Church herself is doing to help women in trouble."
Polling Data
Do you think abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases, or illegal in all cases?
Aug. 2007 Feb. 2007
Legal in all cases 17% 15%
Legal in most cases 35% 30%
Illegal in most cases 26% 30%
Illegal in all cases 17% 20%
Unsure 5% 5%
Now I would like to ask your opinion about a specific abortion procedure known as ‘late-term’ abortion or ‘partial birth’ abortion, which is sometimes performed on women during the last few months of pregnancy. Do you think that this procedure should be legal or illegal?
Legal 17%
Illegal 75%
Unsure 8%
Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Methodology: Telephone interviews to 3,002 American adults, conducted from Aug. 1 to Aug. 18, 2007. Margin of error is 2 per cent.
ping
or put another way
A strong majority of Americans continue to want more legal restrictions on abortion
I wonder when we will see that media report?
I don’t believe these so-called ‘polls’! Let’s put the question “I believe that abortion is A)Great B)Awful” on a ballot and require every LEGAL citizen to vote on it. I think the numbers would be very much the opposite of these ‘it’s okay to kill all the babies we want because they don’t have any rights and it’s the mothers’ choices anyway’ crap. >:-(
Most people think the laws should be more restrictive than what they currently are, but you will never see that spin in the headline. This is why abortion is still the number 1 net vote getter for the GOP, and you will never see the MSM mention that fact either.
Yep. And being pro-life candidate is a major plus in all but a few states.
Sounds like a statistical anomaly to me.
How was the term “adult” defined in both studies? How was the population selected?
It’s unreasonable that 7% went from “always illegal” to “always legal” or that 7% of each moved up a level in six months.
It’s not like this topic hasn’t been a hot one for years. People usually hold strong opinions. I seriously doubt a “statistical” study that says 7% changed their minds in 6 months.
The SCARY thing is how many people hold, simultaneously:
1) Abortion is murder.
2) Abortion should be legal.
Just another outcome based poll. What rational person believes in these things anymore.
Yah. If I was faced with the question “Should abortion ever be legal?” I’d answer yes, and I am strongly against abortion. If the pregnancy will kill the mother, killing both mother and baby is wrong. The polls are stupidly simple and ask the most favorable question for the pro-abortion crowd.
Can we find out who commissioned the poll? Do those who commissioned the poll write the poll questions?
The question is not whether it should be legal, but whether it should be a constitutional right.
You should be able to answer that question by reading the constitution, without taking a poll.
Start with the basic premise that Roe v. Wade was a bad legal decision and that all the policy/law following was bad. The libs took the first vague ruling and have pushed the envelope until killing a full term viable BABY (forget fetus) is merely a woman's choice for convenience.
I believe most people answer questions about abortiion from a perspective of whether or not it should be criminalized in ALL CASES. Obviously, it has certainly been criminalized on the side of the abortionists--it is big business and besides they are doing a public service by keeping the birth rate down and enhancing the convenience factor for women with inconvenient conceptions.(sarc). But, truly, there are a few cases, very few, where abortion would be the answer to a problem and the dr. should not be prosecuted for performing one,
Any hope that the govt. will back off this topic is vain--since when has govt. ever given up power?
vaudine
The majority of Americans did not want to end segregation. That did not make segregation right either.
100% of preborn humans want the right to life
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