Gallup has released its annual polls on abortion attitudes. The headline may bring quite the blow to Planned Parenthood, as America’s abortion giant works overtime on Capitol Hill to keep its taxpayer funding. The Gallup poll notes: “US Abortion Attitudes Stable; No Consensus on Legality.”
Despite a suspect Pew Research poll claiming 70 percent of Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, the abortion movement has not factually been able to claim such a consensus for years. There has been a steady of trend of passage of pro-life laws, with most Americans — across demographics and views on abortions — supporting these restrictions.
Gallup also asks those who say abortion should be legal in certain circumstances whether those should be most circumstances or only a few, and, by nearly a 3-to-1 ratio, they choose only a few, 36% vs. 13%. Thus, the slight majority of Americans (54%) favor curtailing abortion rights — saying abortion should be illegal or legal in only a few circumstances. Slightly fewer, 42%, want access to abortion to be unrestricted or legal in most circumstances.
Despite the bias evident in Gallup’s claim that 54 percent to 42 percent is only a “slight” difference, it remains true that the clear majority of Americans do not support Planned Parenthood’s push for abortion on demand. When it comes down to the numbers, the reality is that Americans are supportive of very few abortions. When Americans encounter the realistic horror of abortion, many discard their support of what they believed to be a mere ‘medical procedure.’
The “few” circumstances where some believe abortion should be legal include rape and incest, which account for very few abortions indeed. Yet more discussion and education is needed as to why the circumstances of a human being’s conception do not determine her worth and why a child should not be subjected to the penalty of death that the rapist is not even subjected to. Additionally, keeping abortion legal in the case of rape too often enables abusers. Planned Parenthood, which has the largest market share of abortions in the country, has been accused of covering up statutory rape and sending victims back to their rapists again and again after performing abortions on them.
Fetal abnormalities similarly account for very few abortions, but are peddled as a chief reason late-term abortions are necessary. However, the truth — even according to abortionists themselves — is that late-term abortions are largely performed for elective reasons. Moreover, as a culture we must contend with the false idea that those who are “abnormal” are also “less than” and not deserving of the equal right to life.
While there is a statistically even split on Americans who label themselves “pro-life” (43 percent) and “pro-choice” (46 percent), Gallup reports that a “Record Percentage of Democrats Identify as ‘Pro-Choice.'” This is hardly surprising, considering that the Democratic Party recently bragged about how its 2016 party platform “goes further” on supporting abortion, and its top leaders recently demanded allegiance to the extreme pro-abortion position.
Among Democrats, 71 percent told Gallup they identify as “pro-choice.” Sixty-one percent regard abortion as “morally acceptable,” and, perhaps most concerning of all, a plurality, at 46 percent, believe that abortion should be “legal in all circumstances.”
The Gallup poll also highlighted that the plurality of all Americans surveyed, 49 percent, find abortion to be morally wrong. This is consistent with polls from Marist/Knights of Columbus which found that Americans across all demographics and opinions on abortion would agree to many restrictions.
An important goal of the pro-life movement must be to help Americans translate their moral beliefs into peaceful, effective action. If abortion is indeed morally wrong, why are we standing by and allowing it to continue on demand throughout our nation? What are we doing to offer our voice to the innocent human beings among us whose lives are destroyed before birth? How are we personally changing and influencing our culture and our laws so that life is not only morally valued but also culturally celebrated and legally protected?
Editor’s Note: All op-eds are the opinion of the writer and not necessarily the official position of Live Action.
