To read most mainstream media, you would think there are two kinds of people in the United States:
-Freedom-loving pro-choice advocates who believe the abortion issue begins and ends with “a woman’s right to choose” – usually right up to the moment of birth;
-Right wing, evangelical Christian lunatics.
Actually, however, the abortion issue is a bit more complex than that.
Maybe the first thing to know is that, although media rarely ever mention it, most people in this country are against unlimited abortions.
Illustratively, The latest Gallup data I could find (May, 2017) show that only 29% of the country feels abortion should be legal under all circumstances (50% feel it should be legal only under certain circumstances and 18% say it should be illegal under all circumstances).
When the “certain circumstances” definition is further split, just 13% feel it should be legal under “most” circumstances, while 36% feel it should be legal “only in a few” circumstances.
But what about gender? Aren’t just about all women in favor of abortion rights? You certainly might get that impression about the 34,658th time you hear it referred to as a “woman’s issue” by our media.
Before answering, I suggest you read this, from Jeanne Mancini’s article at realclearpolitics.com, from January of last year:
Abortion may be a women’s issue, but not in the way that the media and some politicians would like us to believe. Far from seeing abortion as a sacrosanct right to be defended, the overwhelming majority of women in this country want abortion restricted, and don’t want it funded by tax dollars. A majority also think it is morally wrong and that it causes more harm than good to women in the long run.
Such a statement isn’t guesswork, or based on anecdotal evidence. It is a fact, proven by the newly released survey on abortion from The Marist Poll. As it has for past nine years, this annual poll on abortion in America, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, again shows just how extreme and outside the mainstream that abortion advocacy, and the resistance to restrictions, really is.
I disagree with Ms. Mancini that this poll “proves” anything. Polls can be incorrect. But it certainly provides evidence that the abortion narrative our media have fed to us all these years is, to say the least, questionable.
Wow, media misleading us. Who ever heard of such a thing?
And then there is this: poll data show a majority of even pro-choice advocates believe abortion should be restricted or illegal after the first trimester. Read all about it in William Selatan’s article at slate.com. Here’s a key segment:
If you still don’t think the abortion rights movement has a serious problem in the second trimester, check out Page 12 of the report. When they were asked at what point life begins, 53 percent of respondents picked conception. Another 15 percent chose “within the first three months.” Another 8 percent chose “between three and six months.” By six months, 76 percent believed life was underway. That’s pretty close to the 74 percent who endorsed a ban at 620 weeks.
The Knights poll isn’t alone in highlighting this pattern. The year-old Gallup poll I linked to yesterday shows the same thing. Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults in that survey said abortion should be legal in the first three months of pregnancy. Only 27 percent said it should be legal in the second three months.
That’s pretty persuasive, wouldn’t you say?
Now: why did I pick today to post this refresher course in the country’s actual (as opposed to media-fantasized) beliefs about abortion?
Because, on Monday (with relatively little media coverage, of course) the United States Senate voted on whether to ban abortions after the 20 week mark.
It failed, by a vote of 51-46.
Do you need me to tell you that almost all the “nay” votes were Democrats? I didn’t think so.
From Jennifer Haberkorn’s article at politico.com, we have this:
Anti-abortion advocates have made a priority of passing the 20-week ban, which is based on the premise that a fetus can feel pain at that point. The bill passed the House, 237-189, in October.
The bill’s author, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said the United States is one of only seven countries, including North Korea and China, that allow abortion after 20 weeks. “We’re never going to give up until we get America in a better place,” he said on the Senate floor.
In other words, Democrats voted down a bill that would prevent most abortions after the point where the unborn child could feel pain, and after the point where a vast majority of people in this country – including pro-choicers – feel abortions should not be performed.
On whose behalf did they do this? For Planned Parenthood and their hardest-of-hard-left base? Who else?
You can bet your bottom dollar that pro-life advocates – and more than a few self-professed abortion moderates -will be featuring this vote during the 2018 election cycle.
As they should.
In politics, sometimes you pay for the things you do. This may well be one of those times for Democrats.
