Everyone knows that most people support abortion. Yeah, some people don\’t want it after 20 or 24 weeks, but they\’re mostly those rightwingers, and who cares what they think anyway. A woman\’s right to choose is a woman\’s right to choose, and that is inviolable.
Well, not exactly. Actually, “everyone knows this” because, despite massive social research showing otherwise, media keep telling us as much.
So what do the latest data show?
Here\’s your answer, courtesy of the latest research, just conducted by yougov.com:
Most Americans (52%) believe that life starts at conception. A further 20% believe that life begins when a fetus is able to survive outside of the womb, while 18% think that it only begins at the moment of birth. Attitudes towards when, exactly, life begins differ greatly according to age. While 63% of over-65s and 61% of people aged 45 to 64 believe that life begins at conception, only 36% of under-30s agree with them. Just under half of under-30s either believe that life begins when a fetus can survive (25%) or at birth (22%).
If these data are accurate (and they reflect a great deal of other data out there) most people believe life begins at conception and more than 7 in 10 believe there is a live baby by the 20th – 24th week (i.e. when it becomes viable outside the womb).
Does that square with the media mantra we have heard all these years?
Oh, and for you women\’s rights advocates, if you click here, you\’ll find that more women (55% ) say life begins at conception than men (48%). Does that sound like the media mantra we have heard all these years about abortion availability being a “woman\’s issue”?
Y\’know, maybe this “when does life begin” thing isn\’t quite as cut and dried as media have presented it.
