Posted on 12/16/2001 1:53:14 PM PST by MHGinTN
Source: Priests for Life / E-mail response
Abortion Polls: Measuring or Molding Public Opinion? by Father Frank Pavone
[Pro-Life Infonet Note: Father Frank Pavone is the cofounder of Priests for Life.]
Professor Raymond J. Adamek (Department of Sociology, Kent State University) has done the pro-life movement a great service in his study "Abortion Polls 1965-1998: Designed to Measure or to Mold Public Opinion?"
His analysis of major opinion polls on the abortion question during that time frame reveals that, given the way the questions are asked, what is being measured is not the public's opinion about the current abortion laws and practice. What is being measured is their opinion about imaginary abortion laws and practice. This is simply because so many of the questions misrepresent the facts.
Professor Adamek explains, "On 85 occasions from 1973 to 1998, 8 major pollsters described Roe v. Wade as permitting abortion during 'the first three months of pregnancy.'[T]his description is incomplete and misleading, since it gives the uninformed respondent the impression that the Court did not legalize abortion beyond the first trimester, and focuses the attention of the informed respondent on only part of the decision."
A reading of Roe and subsequent abortion decisions, a study of the legislation and Court battles on partial-birth abortion, or a journey through the "A" section of the Yellow Pages of a major city is enough to dispel any doubts that abortion is legal throughout pregnancy. So why can't a poll that wants to measure what people think about that policy ask people what they think about that policy,instead of what they think about some different policy?
The conclusion: You simply can't believe a poll that tells you that most Americans agree with "Roe vs. Wade." They still don't know what the decision said, and it is most likely that the pollster hasn't helped them find out.
Another imbalance in abortion poll questions is the way they speak about "rights." Professor Adamek explains that he analyzed "all questions from 1965 through 1998 that explicitly mentioned the woman or the unborn and the word 'right(s)'. An illustrative 'woman's right' question is: Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court ruling that women have the right to have an abortion during the first three months of their pregnancy? (Yankelovich Clancy Shulman 4/5/89). We found 66 items asking about the woman's right to (choose) abortion but none asking exclusively about the unborn's right to life! By asking questions about only one side of the rights issue,polls yield an incomplete and skewed picture of public opinion."
A third problem area is the fact that 65% of questions referred to the abortion-making decision as one in which the doctor was involved. Yet in reality, fewer than 25% of women, if that many, bring the doctor into the decision making process at all. Now since the majority of Americans approve medical necessity as a justification for abortion, mentioning the doctor in the question increases the "pro-choice" responses.Questions which specify the actualreasons for which abortions occur would yield a better measure of what people think about abortion practice in America.
Good practical advice, therefore: Don't just look at a poll's results; look at its questions.
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Find pro-life books on abortion and euthanasia http://www.roevwade.org/books.html
---a reference to the Holocaust by Franz Stangl, Nazi commandant of extermination camps in Sobibor (March, 1942 -September, 1942) and Treblinka (September, 1942 - August, 1943).
Interviewed by Gitta Sereny in 1970, Stangl's comments later appeared in the book Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience (1983).
I wish Republicans would wise up and not only realize this, but use this fact to their advantage. Given the status quo on the issue, compromise would not be appeasement [since a small gain is still a gain]. While incrementalism would not achieve total results any time soon, an all-or-nothing atitude won't achieve major results ever.
Imagine what would have happened if Ms. Brady never did anything but push for total gun bans, and then compare that with the attitude and actions of many in the pro-life camp. Then consider who has had more success.
Pro-life bump.
It is our duty as Christians to snatch souls from Satan.
Oh please, preach preach preach. Just coz you're a christian and you have your own set of beliefs, doesn't mean you're right.
Don't pray for my soul thanks, I would rather see you waste your time on a pointless activity for someone else.
It just annoys me that all you pro-life people bring this down to a religious issue which is pointless because unless you are a christian, the points you make mean nothing.
I am not angry, i am filled with love for all my family, friends and all fellow humans, but i do that because i am a good person, and do it by my own choice and my own set of beliefs. Not because i hope it will get me into heaven.
Thanks for the honesty. You have NO IDEA how much that's going to mean to this thread. BB, we don't do this or feel this way because we feel it's going to get us into Heaven. We do it because we believe in the sanctity of life. Unborn, born, handicapped and the elderly. Yes, some of us are unbendable. Some of us aren't. But the goal is the same....to TRY to show the world that this isn't JUST about a woman's "right" to choose what to do with her body. That's such a silly argument, that if it didn't involve life or death, we could laugh at it. I could rant on and on here, others will pick up where I've left off.
We DO believe in the Bible and what it says, and as Christians, we're commanded to try our best to follow God's word. THAT part is unbendable.
I thank you for contributing to the thread. I wish for you and your family a truly BLESSED Christmas!!!!
Being a "good" person won't save you. Jesus is the only way to be saved. Jesus said there is none good, no not one. You rightiousness is but filthy rags to God. Just because you don't belive it doesn't make it untrue. If you didn't need Him to get to heaven, He wouldn't have had to go to the cross. Prayer is the only communication you can have with God and He is waiting for you to say something.
P.S. You are too angry!
I was specifically addressing a fellow Christian, but regardless there are many people besides Christians who find abortion to be abhorrent. Jews, Christians, Atheists, agnostics...lots of people find THIS unacceptable.
Time and again they will use statistics while true scientific law does not rely on statistics but general principles that are gauged against reality. Ironicaly statistics have however been used by the Church to prove the existence of miracles. So, really, those people are using polls and statistics as if reality and science were a matter of miracle!!
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