Abortion a Leading Cause of Increase in Conservative Values and Voting Power
(LifeSiteNews.com) WASHINGTON, Friday's Life Issues Forum, a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops column by Cathy Cleaver Ruse, examines the "Roe effect" - a term coined by Wall Street Journal reporter James Taranto to describe the effect that abortion has had on voting.
The Roe effect says that, because liberals are much more likely to abort their children than conservatives, a very significant shift in values and voting trends is occurring in society. In other words, the 40 million U.S. young people who have been killed since abortion was legalized there in 1973 would likely have espoused the values of their parents, and voted in a similar manner. Thus there has been a relative increase in the number of conservative voters due to attrition of liberals by abortion.
Ruse refers to Larry Eastland who discussed the Roe Effect in an American Spectator article, who estimated that the 2000 presidential election saw a shortfall of 13 million voters as a result of abortion. That number has jumped to 19 million for the November election.
"But can we know how they would have voted?" Ruse asks. "No, of course not. Still, as a general proposition, children tend to absorb the values of their parents, including their political views, and tend to develop the same lifestyle as their family. So if pro-lifers beget pro-lifers, then pro-choicers beget pro-choicers -- unless they abort them instead."
Ruse also points out the results of a recent Wirthlin Worldwide survey that found, "of the Americans who call themselves politically 'conservative,' 25% are having abortions. In contrast, 40% of self-described political 'liberals' are having abortions."
Ruse concludes with a quote from Eastland: "Liberals have been remarkably blind to the fact that every day the abortions they advocate dramatically decrease their power to do so."
Read Friday's Life Issues Forum:
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/publicat/lifeissues/092404.htm
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Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: September 28, 2004
Online at: http://ifrl.org/IFRLDailyNews/040929/3