More Americans “Pro-Life” Than “Pro-Choice” for First Time

Also, fewer think abortion should be legal “under any circumstances”by Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.

The new results, obtained from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, represent a significant shift from a year ago, when 50% were pro-choice and 44% pro-life. Prior to now, the highest percentage identifying as pro-life was 46%, in both August 2001 and May 2002.

The May 2009 survey documents comparable changes in public views about the legality of abortion. In answer to a question providing three options for the extent to which abortion should be legal, about as many Americans now say the procedure should be illegal in all circumstances (23%) as say it should be legal under any circumstances (22%). This contrasts with the last four years, when Gallup found a strong tilt of public attitudes in favor of unrestricted abortion.

<snip>

http://www.gallup.com/poll/118399/More-Americans-Pro-Life-Than-Pro-Choice-First-Time.aspx

I expect that at least some who post in this thread will repudiate the findings in this poll. I see no reason to take that position, so my question is, assuming this poll accurately reflects positions of Americans on abortion, why is this changing?

they are the type that would say i don't believe in abortion personally but they also would not support any laws to take away the right to get an abortion.

for those who want to ban abortion rights.

I agree that that's the frame we should use, but I also don't think we get to tell people what they should call themselves anymore than they get to tell me that I'm pro-abortion. I identify as pro-choice.

to get an abortion if they don't want one. you think it's up to the person.

and i think a large number of these people are voting based on the term "pro life" and how they don't want to be considered against life. but these people would not support bans on abortion rights.

But I'm not going to call racists 'pro-american' just because they describe themselves that way.
But I'm not going to call homophobes 'pro-decency' just because they describe themselves that way.
But I'm not going to call anti-israel folk 'pro-peace' just because they describe themselves that way.

I hate the term "pro-abortion", but I find it more accurate to describe my position than "pro-choice". If one were to be really deceitful, one could describe the pro-slavery factions of the Civil War as "pro choice" because they believed that states should have the right to "choose" whether or not they wanted slavery. I strongly support a woman's right to have an abortion. I just don't know if the discussion is framed the right way.

have a dichotomy , they are pro death penalty and pro war.
Birth more future canon fodder for wars of conquest and entertainment.
They are also anti contraception and pro keep women as slaves and downtrodden.
No to condoms, No to snip of vasectomy or tubal litigation.
We are over breeding beyond the environments ability to support our gluttonous consuming of resources.

Abstinence does not work, well it could, but we are talking about teens with ragin hormones here. Gawds 'punishment' for teen sex is that they will have to stop whatever plans for their lives and raise a child they are not ready for.
God forbid they should get education to give them the tools to know what they are doing, and PREVENT and unwanted pregnancy.
I almost always have thought they were insane or maladjusted some how.

I also have a problem with those fools that spend thousands and thousands of dollar for fertility treatments which is short sighted and selfish, that money could help a lot elsewhere and they could always adopt. There are so many kids that are in foster care or state orphanages, that need love.

Me I am doing my part for population control..I am gay and so is my partner and for animal over population. We have 4 female adopted dogs, they would have been euthanized.
I find it crazy that we have ads on tv for Viagra/Cialis all day long, but only the occasional one for The Pill, and never for condoms

the hardest corps pro lifers are often catholic and they are usually also against the death penalty. The nuclear freeze movement was made up of many pro lifers who were also against nukes.

is used more often-or at least that is my impression.

On the other hand 76% think abortion should be legal under some or any circumstances, so I'm not sure what the 51% of people think they mean when they say they're not pro-choice.

So at least half the people whoc claim to be pro-life still support legal abortion, just not in all cases, which is Roe in a nutshell.

I get the feeling many people call themselves "Pro-Life" because they are personally opposed to (or uncomfortable with) abortion, but they still believe it should be legal.

I keep wondering when somebody is going to start asking this poll question:

Which best describes your position on abortion? (Choose one)

* Pro-Choice.
* Pro-Life.
* Pro-Life, but I believe abortion should be legal.

Whenever I make the suggestion, my fellow abortion supporters scoff -- After all, "pro-choice" means you believe abortion should be legal. But I suspect there could be a good 20% or more of Americans who consider themselves to be in the third category.

Quinnipiac University Poll. July 8-13, 2008. N=1,783 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 2.3.
.

"In general, do you agree or disagree with the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that established a woman's right to an abortion?"
7/8-13/2008
.
Agree 63%
Disagree 33%

I mean, really, is anybody PRO-DEATH?????? In regards to abortion rights specifically, people either support (to some degree) a woman's right to choose abortion (Pro-Choice) or they don't and think that government should ban it (Anti-Choice). Not to mention the fact that a lot of people who consider themselves "Pro-Life" (mostly because they don't believe in a woman's right to make their own reproductive and medical decisions) aren't even intellectually consistent because they support (in most cases, strongly) the State's power to kill people whom have committed serious offenses. Most of them also don't seem to have a huge problem with wars of aggression either.

More and more these days are pro-death... from the "kill-em-all" war hawks to the "we need a radical reduction in the human population (but we won't say how) for a sustainable environment" crowd.

Anyway, all propaganda terms aside, the proper labels, if we are to use them, are "pro-abortion" and "anti-abortion". This debate isn't about the existence and continuation of life itself any more than it is about the ability of a human being to decide between options. It's about the ethics and legality of this one specific act.

The only people AFAIK who could accurately be described as having "pro-abortion" views/policies would be the Chinese government, which, of course, practices strict population control due to their already dense population. Oh, and of course, at least at one time, the corporate sweatshops of the Marianas Islands (Saipan) could be considered to be "pro-abortion" since they reportedly required their female indentured sex slave workers to get abortions if they got pregnant. Other than these two examples, which, ironically, could be more correctly considered to be "anti-choice", I don't know anybody within the "pro-choice" movement who specifically advocates forced abortion or advocates abortion as being superior to other choices. At least, I haven't met him/her yet. Anyway, the overriding principle is not really so much whether abortion is "good" or "bad" but rather whether or not women should be allowed to make their own sexual and reproductive choices or whether the state should intervene in such fundamental and personal choices. That is the true essence of the debate as I see it.

I also don't understand why you seem to lump the "sustainable environment" crowd in with the truly "pro-death" war hawks. I'm not positive (since I don't know the exact policy prescriptions of that particular crowd but I somehow doubt that the extermination of segments of the population to reduce the population is quite what they have in mind). I actually do believe that we need to be more mindful of bringing more people into this world than the environment can actually handle (our planet DOES have finite room and resources and our country consumes a disproportionate amount of both, after all) and, more importantly, I feel that it is even more important that all children brought into this world are wanted and that the parents are actually capable of caring for them appropriately. I don't believe that people should just have babies because of a literal interpretation of a few select passages in the Bible (i.e. Duggar family) nor simply because they are denied the ability to make an informed choose whether or not to bring children into the world (i.e. due to lack of education, access to contraception and other reproductive services).

Its made me prolife also.

I still belive in choice,though.

also Americans respond to the whims of fashion, in this case, "the fashion of the christ"...

Regardless of the way the question was put, she would have checked the "pro-life" box.

The labels don't matter. They've been asking the same questions for years and the answers are changing. The OP's question what why?

Had you asked me at 20 I would have been an "absolutely free choice at any time with no reservations".
Now, my answer is "Personally, I feel.... but it's not my place to decide for a woman."

But they insist that pro-choice is all about encouraging women to get abortions instead of simply fighting to keep it legal.

which do you think the majority of Americans will pick? It's all in the labels.

they may find themselves amazingly "pro-choice", and will start calling friends to find a doctor who will do a "D&C"... funny how we hardly EVER hear of women getting D&C's much these days, and when I was a young teen, I remember hearing about all these horrible "female problems", and how D&C's were "just the thing" to clear them right up..:eyes:

:hi:

abortion should be illegal. They just don't think they could ever get an abortion or support someone in doing so and therefore don't want to say they are pro-choice.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/118399/More-Americans-Pro-Life-Than-Pro-Choice-First-Time.aspx
May 15, 2009

More Americans “Pro-Life” Than “Pro-Choice” for First Time

Also, fewer think abortion should be legal “under any circumstances”
by Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995...............

The May 2009 survey documents comparable changes in public views about the legality of abortion. In answer to a question providing three options for the extent to which abortion should be legal, about as many Americans now say the procedure should be illegal in all circumstances (23%) as say it should be legal under any circumstances (22%). This contrasts with the last four years, when Gallup found a strong tilt of public attitudes in favor of unrestricted abortion.


..............

Americans' recent shift toward the pro-life position is confirmed in two other surveys. The same three abortion questions asked on the Gallup Values and Beliefs survey were included in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from May 12-13, with nearly identical results, including a 50% to 43% pro-life versus pro-choice split on the self-identification question.

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Additionally, a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center recorded an eight percentage-point decline since last August in those saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases, from 54% to 46%. The percentage saying abortion should be legal in only a few or no cases increased from 41% to 44% over the same period. As a result, support for the two broad positions is now about even, sharply different from most polling on this question since 1995, when the majority has typically favored legality........................

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pro-life


Main Entry:
pro–life Listen to the pronunciation of pro–life
Pronunciation:
\(ˌ)prō-ˈlīf\
Function:
adjective
Date:
1971

: opposed to abortion
— pro–lif·er Listen to the pronunciation of pro–lifer \-ˈlī-fər\ noun

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/politics/15abortion.html?hpw


On Abortion, Obama Is Drawn Into Debate He Hoped to Avoid

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: May 14, 2009

............But even as Mr. Obama has delighted abortion rights advocates, he has dialed back some earlier ambitions. In 2007, he promised Planned Parenthood that “the first thing I’d do as president” would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which effectively codifies Roe v. Wade. Now he says the bill is “not my highest legislative priority,” as he put it at a recent news conference.................

Perhaps you can't really measure this one with a poll question and break it out into chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.

I don't like the idea of abortion, least of all for convenience. Now, my mother will tell you that no woman would have an abortion for convenience, that it's painful and sickening. She's never really said how she knows that, but we suspect that her miscarriage in younger days may not have been spontaneous. Be that as it may, and there is no point in pursuing this in discussion with her, what she must mean is that no woman would ever have a SECOND abortion on a whim.

But I do support legal abortion, especially early on. Where I get hinky is after the point of viability. My spiritual philosophy (soul entering the body at birth) is not as certain at that point, because infants born after that point survive and are people. If I were firm in my belief in the immortality of the human soul, then I would be confident that an abortion at any time would not matter or be a moral issue- but I'm human and lack that confidence. So I support abortion up to two weeks prior to the earliest medically established point of viability.

In a poll, where my choices are limited to those offered, I might come off differently from my actual position. In a poll, which has no consequence, I might offer my PERSONAL opinion rather than my political position.

Am I the only one whose personal opinion, or values, are not always in harmony with my political position? For example- I would love to drive the Mormons back to Utah and turn the Orlando temple into an opera house; but, I wouldn't support a law which ordered that.

Go read the questions and look at the results - most support abortion - the low numbers are for those that believe abortion is illegal.

What this poll shows is the people are framing the discussion - they aren't letting the labels impact their decisions.

I'm pro-life and pro-choice, guess there are others who see themselves that same way.

:eyes:

Thank you. A very good theory.

The shift is entirely among Republicans. See post 48. I can see two possible, not necessarily exclusive explanations:

1) The views of existing Republicans have hardened since Obama's election.

2) Moderates are abandoning the Republican party, but Gallup has weighted their results to make party affiliation constant.

The questions are too vague to take away from the poll the idea that anyone wants to criminalize abortion or take away a woman's right to choose. Most don't want to see abortion used as a form of birth control.

Most people want it legal, but not under all circumstances. Well, frankly that's not anti-choice. Within that category would be someone who thinks that an abortion at 8 months and two weeks should be illegal.

Most Americans are fairly apolitical. Many don't know that so-called "pro-life" organizations are anti-abortion. If they don't know that, then it's kind of like asking, "do you like death?"

But many of these people, if they get knocked up or their girlfriend gets knocked up under the wrong circumstances would want the abortion option.

If the question had been, "Do you believe in overturning Roe v. Wade?" the results of this poll would be much, much different.

I would venture to say that many, many of the respondents in this poll would fit into the category that while they don't "agree" with abortion would not want to see it outlawed and become a criminal and punishable offense.

Ask the person taking the poll if they believe abortion should be illegal. The answer will be far different than the poll they're touting, as the other poll asking this very question suggests 75% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in some instances.

As the poll shows, there's really been no change among Democrats or liberals as a whole on this issue. And I think there's a lot more behind this than deeply held concern for the unborn. (Which I say with the UTMOST :sarcasm:.)

Most of the people polled most likely hate Obama with the heat of a thousand suns, and this issue is the only way they know of to articulate that hate. And until they expand their definition of "pro-life" to include such issues as economic equality, the death penalty, torture, health care, poverty etc., they are most kindly invited to take their sanctimony and hypocrisy and shove it straight up their asses.

If these people can go into a holy fit over Obama's speaking at Notre Dame, yet say NOTHING -- or worse yet, DEFEND -- the anti-life actions of Obama's predecessor, they are among the very best of political hacks and opportunists who are using the issue of abortion for their own gain, much in the same way they say their opponents are using it.

human rights are not determined by public opinion polls (well, they shouldn't be).

i'm sure lots of people used to be pro-slavery too, but that didn't mean slavery was ok.

women have the right to terminate pregnancies, whether or not "pro-lifers" like it.

if they make it illegal, it's going to happen anyway, only the women will die too. and some feminists are prepared for that to happen, learning about menstrual extraction.

at least for the Catholics, it would be consistent with their theological authoritarianism that they are being told something like: Okay, it appears that we were lied to, so we made a mistake about Bush's War, so we are guilty of a major mortal sin, the only possible reparation for said mortal sin is to stay committed to "Pro-Life" and it is in that committment that we will be forgiven.

Eleven years of Catholic Catechism here; the framing above is what their teachers and priests in the confessional would say and for those who are too confused and too afraid to take responsibility for their own souls into their own HANDS, this would be a very effective line of theological "reasoning".

the term "pro-choice" is cerebral.

This is why for several years some have suggested that we change the definition.

I'm Catholic and personally pro-life but will attest to the fact that not everyone is even religious to begin with. I believe in separation of church and state.

If we truly wish to end abortion, we must set the example and reach out to those in need.

Birth Control is a part of the equation.

Unfortunately the Catholic Church Patriarchal Hierarchy moves ALMOST as much as the tectonic plates. :(

Pro-Life equals anti-woman.

:shrug:

He was "too cute" and "spot on" in the flick "DOGMA"



Given Carlin's endorsement of the liberating use of swear words and his disdain for organized religion, he was a natural to appear in Kevin Smith's profane yet earnest religious satire. He played Cardinal Ignatius Glick, who tries to make the Church more user-friendly via rebranding  coming up with the winking, thumbs-up 'Buddy Christ' icon.

Catholic WOW anyone? :evilgrin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FigprdcBGA