Feddie over at Southern Appeal offers some analysis of this recent poll.
I think Feddie’s analysis is dead on: Americans’ support for Roe vs. Wade is part of a more general, narcissistic "culture of me," in his words, as well as a false (that is to say, one-sided) culture of sympathy and sentimentality that focuses on the visible (the ostensible harm to a mother’s interests) over the invisible (the actual harm done by killing an infant).
Feddie writes that:
Assuming that this poll accurately reflects the opinion of the American people, this finding disappoints me on two levels.
The assumption that any poll reported by the press accurately reflects the opinion of the American people is, of course, a whopping huge assumption that is not rashly to be made (as illustrated by the exit polls last Election Day). The chance of misleading wording and biased sampling are just too great (especially when, as in this case, the wording of the questions and the internals of the poll are not given).
But even making this assumption, I don’t know how disappointed I am. Of course, I am disappointed to see the lack of appreciation of constitutional law that the public displays, but then the media and the educational system have been systematically inculcating a totally irresponsible philosophy of judicial activism in the populace for the last fifty years at least. One can’t be surprised, therefore, that there is a shocking ignorance on this subject among the American populace.
But setting that issue aside, I think that what support may be found for Roe among the populace is likely to be overestimated. The support for the Evil Decision may be broad, but it isn’t deep in many quarters. While there are many die-hard abortion supporters (pun intended), there are many, many more who are soft supporters that don’t really understand what Roe says.
Indeed, many still think that Roe only allows for abortion in limited circumstances, as opposed to virtual abortion on demand from conception until birth.
Others are willing to voice a vague support for abortion–until you confront them with the reality of what abortion involves, at which point their support dries up and even reverses.
I’m not surprised, therefore, that we have a lot of public education to do on this subject or that we have a long fight ahead of us.
But it is a fight we are destined to win.
Pro-lifers inherently out populate anti-lifers, and therein lies longterm victory.
The present poll, to the extent it shows us anything about present opinion (an extent already noted to be extremely questionable), merely reveals for us the Roe we have to hoe.