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.
It is true! Democratic systems favor groups who believe in reproducing while those who do not doom themselves to irrelevancy in future history. Imagine how different the political scene will be in just 10 to 20 years from now:
“Mommy, what’s a ‘pro-choice’?”
“I dunno. Maybe you should ask one of your seven brothers and sisters…”
Jimmy writes: “Pro-lifers inherently out populate anti-lifers, and therein lies longterm victory.”
StubbleSpark writes: “It is true! Democratic systems favor groups who believe in reproducing while those who do not doom themselves to irrelevancy in future history.”
Yes, but the Culture of Death types have done a great job of taking over the education systems that systematically steal our children from us and bring them over to the Dark Side. That’s why school vouchers are so important. Not everyone can home school, so it is important to give as many parents as possible as many options as possible for providing their children with a christian-centred education.
I understand that the poll was written in a way to skew support in favor of maintaining legal abortion. It explained that Roe only permitted abortion within the first trimester.
I viewed the poll as a piece of propaganda to warn pro-life legislators that the voters may not stand for them putting serious pro-life judges on the federal bench. But election results consistently show that being pro-life is a net plus for a candidate.
Nevertheless, I think it is obvious that the public at large does not sufficiently understand what happened in 1973 and in subsequent federal court decisions. I even hear pro-life speakers refer to “when they changed the abortion law” as if there had been a debate or election and we lost. If Roe were consistently presented to the public as the “act of raw judicial power” that it is (to use Justice White’s phrase) then we might find the public to be more supportive of its reversal.
Steve is correct — the polling questions were erroneous and deliberately misleading, so the poll results are worthless. (Anyway, the poll says the same number of people support Roe vs. Wade as are ignorant of who William Rehnquist is, which again seems to demonstrate the stupidity and immorality of democracy.)
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in Washington, D.C., has issued a critique of this AP poll, entitled, “Associated Press and Other Media Distort Roe v. Wade and Public Opinion on Abortion Policy.” For more information, you can email Legfederal@aol.com, or visit the NRLC website at http://www.nrlc.org