Posted on 04/10/2016 8:06:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
Because the “pro-life” and “pro-choice” labels have become so subjective, Americans are increasingly identifying with a particular label when, in reality, they don’t fall under that camp at all.
Donald Trump has stated he is pro-life with exceptions (rape, incest and life of the mother). He has also stated seriously radical positions that hardly anyone in the pro-life movement would agree with, like women who seek illegal abortions should be punished. He also said that the “laws are set" on abortion and that the legality of it should go back to the states.
Last May, Gallup released a poll that touted the headline “Americans Choose ‘Pro-Choice’ for First Time in Seven Years.” The poll said that half of Americans say they pro-choice, while only 44 percent self-identify as pro-life.
While on the surface, it looks like more Americans are self-identifying as pro-choice than pro-life, when a closer look is taken at exactly what they favor, those numbers tell a different story.
Nineteen percent of respondents said abortion should be illegal in all circumstances and 36 percent said it should be legal in only a few circumstances. Those two groups of respondents equal a pro-life majority at 55 percent total, while people that said abortion should be legal in all and most circumstances amount to 42 percent.
So Donald Trump isn’t the only person confused on abortion, although he is probably in a camp of his own when it comes to stating his position.
Americans may be misidentifying themselves when it comes to the matter of abortion since a majority clearly support significant restrictions on abortion. For millennials in particular, as a group that works with over 930 student pro-life groups, we see students misidentifying themselves all the time on campuses across the country, which is why we no longer ask them if they are pro-life or pro-choice. They don’t know, nor do they care, what the labels mean. Instead, when we are on campus, we plainly ask students whether or not they support legal abortion or how long into a pregnancy they tolerate abortion.
There is a huge disconnect in national conversation about abortion. Many people think they may be labeled as one thing and, in actuality, identify more with something else.
Part of this disconnect has been the political left's attempt to confuse the labels. Remember when Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator who filibustered a law to ban abortions after preborn babies can feel pain, declared she was actually pro-life in the Texas gubernatorial race?
It shows how little time those of us in the pro-life movement have actually spent trying to define our pro-life brand, while letting others do it for us as we scramble to promote and fundraise for our individual organizations.
In 2014, Planned Parenthood advocated dropping the pro-choice label, saying publicly it didn’t really mean anything any longer and privately that it was associated with the negative connotations of abortion. So they went broader and began using code terms such as “women’s health” and “reproductive freedom.”
With the labels of pro-life and pro-choice falling by the wayside and the GOP frontrunner for the presidential nomination saying he’s pro-life one day and supports existing abortion laws the next, what are we to do?
It’s time to speak plainly, stop using vague language and have an honest and open conversation about abortion and when it should be legal.
The pro-life movement needs to take back the brand and proudly declare what the term means.
Being pro-life is about empowering women and providing resources to those facing unplanned pregnancies. It centers around the belief that abortion is the taking of innocent life and that abortion is not acceptable at any point in the pregnancy. It means believing there are two victims in every abortion – the mother and the baby. It means that we want to see abortion made unthinkable and illegal.
“He also said that the “laws are set” on abortion and that the legality of it should go back to the states”
Trump is right abortion and gay marriage are states rights issues. He’s also right that the legality of abortion and gay marriage are set. The Supreme Court will be a long time changing either of its decisions. So until the states grow a pair and start exerting the 10th amendment there not much to argue with Donald Trump about.
Pro-life makes says no punishment for the woman.....but that makes no sense. She’s the one submitting her body for “the kill”. She’s not the good guy.
Abortion is an important topic and should be addressed.
...right after we secure our boarders, deport illegals, appoint strict constructionist judges to the Supreme Court, rebuild our miliatary and renegotiate our Trade Deals.
It is the knowledge, not belief. The word "belief" suggests that the concept is only a matter of opinion, and that there is no concrete evidence to back it up. However, we know how embryos develop. We know that for the first few days, there is nothing but a small ball of cells which are preparing to differentiate and that an embryo at this stage probably will not develop further. We know that once an embryo makes it past the first few days, arms, legs, organs, etc., form very rapidly and are all present by the 5th week after conception. Given that cell types are functional as soon as they differentiate, we know that the brain began processing information sometime between weeks 2 and 5 after conception. This means that the baby is capable of feeling. From week 5 to week 36 (or however long the pregnancy lasts), the baby grows and refines all of the existing organ systems. Thus, the ability of the baby to sense and process information about its environment grows increasingly sophisticated throughout pregnancy, in a development process that will continue for another 2.5 decades.
As I said, no belief is required here. There is plenty of hard, concrete knowledge providing solid evidence that abortion is the brutal termination of an innocent life.
Every candidate, Dem or Rep should be asked if they know how long a late term abortion takes. Most don’t, and use the term “hours.”
It’s not “hours.”
It’s north of THREE DAYS.
The author is an idiot. If abortion is an illegal murder, then hiring the assassin is illegal and punishable-period.
Well, Wendy, why not change your headline to - Americans Are Clueless About Abortion?
Why reference Donald Trump at all?
Queens have the power of life or death over other people.
Abortion provides the state sanctioned power of life or death to females in this country.
We have a nation with millions of queens.
I do realize that males play a part in pregnancy, but they do not have the state sanctioned power of life or death over other people.
It’s not just abortion withTrump though. It’s conservatism in general.
Meanwhile, our religious leaders parade with sodomites and campaign against inert atmospheric gases.
The author is an idiot. If abortion is an illegal murder, then hiring the assassin is illegal and punishable-period.
JimRob agrees....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3417192/posts?page=8#8
Democrats are first and foremost Democrats.
They say, “I am a Democrat,” then they look at the list of things that Democrats say they are.
Pro-choice is number one on the list, therefore that is what they are.
They have no understanding of what they claim to be, they just are what they’re told to be.
Excellent point
It’s not just abortion withTrump though. It’s conservatism in general.
Several of us, here, disagree with your false assessment.....
Now is as good a time as ever to take this battle on. Trump is the biggest thing for America since Reagan. The Republicans should embrace him and run with it. And if they actually believed in their own conservative platform, they’d do it.
Trump’s positions are rebuilding the Reagan coalition. I don’t see this happening with Cruz. And any RINO they put in will be a sure-loser.
147 posted on March 31, 2016 at 12:51:42 PM CDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3416008/posts?page=147#147
Clueless is irrelevant. Different people think differently about unborn babies. Note that miscarried and aborted babies aren’t commonly considered “children”. However, the parents of children that died before being born will have conclusions better thought out than mine.
I refuse to call the other side pro-"choice" as that would then signify that I am anti-"choice" -- which I am not
Yes, thank you Kristan Hawkins, we understand that you, and most “pro-life” writers, support a blanket license to abort for all American women once a ban is in place. Fun fact — your position is considered essentially pro-choice in countries where abortion is illegal and women actually ARE imprisoned for it.
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