Huffington Post: 59% support 20-week abortion ban
When even the Huffington Post turns against you, where is an abortion supporter to go? From HuffPo, today:
Most Americans would favor sweeping new national restrictions on abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll. But the poll also shows many Americans remain conflicted in their views on abortion.
By a margin of 59% to 30%, respondents to the new poll said they would favor a federal law banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Noted David Freddoso at ConservativeIntel.com:
There it is, in black and white – 59% support the ban. This more or less confirms the result of other polls. It’s also worth noting that among people who gave otherwise ambiguous or conflicted answers about the abortion issue, 70% supported the ban.
This is pretty simple stuff — late-term abortion is barbaric, a large majority of Americans agree, including many who don’t oppose all or even most abortions in principle.
What I find fascinating about this debate is that the pro-choice side is on a suicide mission to reclaim ground that’s probably lost for good. They got themselves a winning position when they stopped talking about abortion and started talking about contraception during the 2012 election. They had a won game, rhetorically speaking, and could stop retreating there.
But now the Gosnell trial provided an impetus for new regulations on late-term abortions, and they’ve been lured forward again. We’re not longer talking about birth control pills anymore – we’re talking about skull-crushing, bone-crunching abortions of babies in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy. Good luck defending that.
About as bad for the other side is that a total of 47% of respondents said abortion should be “generally” or “always” illegal, as opposed to 46% who thought it should be “generally” or “always” legal. In total, 74% supported some sort of abortion restrictions. HuffPo again:
Nineteen percent said they think abortion should always be legal, while 27% said it should be generally legal, but with some restrictions. Another 17% said that abortion should always be illegal, while 30% said it should be generally illegal, except in special circumstances.
More bad news for the other side: 43% of those polled thought current abortion restrictions weren’t strict enough, as opposed to only 20% who thought they were too strict and 17% who thought they were just right.
I should note that despite the overwhelming belief that there should at least be some to many restrictions on abortion, if not an outright ban, only 26% thought the government “has a right and obligation to pass restrictions on abortion,” leaving me to wonder who in the world they think should enact the restrictions they support.
See poll results here.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
“I should note that despite the overwhelming belief that there should at least be some to many restrictions on abortion, if not an outright ban, only 26% thought the government “has a right and obligation to pass restrictions on abortion,” leaving me to wonder who in the world they think should enact the restrictions they support.”
It’s hard to believe that you’ve been writing about this stuff for so long and yet you still have not realized that most respondents to these polls interpret them as a proxy for expressing their own personal feelings about abortion, glossing over any implicit or even explicit legal questions in the process, because that is not how they have been conditioned to think. Many people find abortion distasteful if not immoral. At the same time they are deeply suspicious of any attempts by the government to regulate private behavior. I’d be surprised if more than a third of the poll respondents are even aware that the House of Representatives recently passed a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, or that the same bill does not even have a glimmer of hope for passage in the Senate.
“Many people find abortion distasteful if not immoral”
Why Joan?
American pro-abortion activists are among the most radical in the world. European countries (and the vast, vast majority of other countries in the world) tend to have much stricter abortion laws than the US. It is hilarious when pro-aborts howl that this ban will “take us back to the middle ages.” To be more accurate, they should be crying, “this repressive law will turn us into 21st century Sweden!” Actually, though, even modern-day Sweden has stricter abortion laws than the 20-week-ban these barbarians are fighting against.
Faith truthseeker? Propaganda campaigns?
It’s like how a lot of people find others consuming excess alcohol to be distasteful if not immoral then they do it themselves every now and then.
“American pro-abortion activists are among the most radical in the world.” – that would be because American anti-choice activists are the most radical in the world.
Countries such as Sweden doen’t have agitating activist groups permanently trying to ban abortion altogether. Most countries with the abortion laws you mention consider the abortion debate settled.
Reality, Instead of abortion supporters taking ownership of their own behavior, it’s let’s blame the pro-lifers again.
Good idea MoJoanne, where shall we start?
This is hilarious. No one ever hears anyone talk the way joan does about any other issue.
Just ad hoc blatherskite to explain away how people feel as unimportant. And yet joan, doubtless, hopes her representatives represent her — without rationalizing her wishes as failing to account for legal issues, etc.
LOL
Good grief.
Another interesting poll would be to ask how many people knew there wasn’t already a 20 week ban on abortion before they took the poll saying they’re in favor of a 20 week ban on abortion! Seriously. In abortion-hugging Maryland, we’ve met many locals outside Carhart’s Germantown, MD clinic who had no idea abortion was legal through nine months for virtually any reason. The same is true with family and friends I’ve talked with. They simply didn’t know.
Two huge reasons I’m encouraged about this national trend: One, the obviously transformed mindset of Gosnell’s attorney (his name escapes me). Two, my Obama-lovin’ cousin who will even back Obama on a campaign ad equating first-time voting with first-time sex does NOT believe a woman should be permitted to have an abortion beyond 20 weeks.
Joan, what makes abortion a private matter?
Doesn’t the Court need to examine the morality of “private” acts? If the unborn baby is a human being for legal purposes this whole “privacy” argument falls apart. If you are robbed in your bedroom, it is still a crime and you would want the government, via the police, to find, investigate, and prosecute the criminal. The location of the crime would be entirely irrelevant.
Yes, people do not want the government to regulate their private lives, and many of these people probably do support abortion access strictly for this reason alone. But the assumption that abortion is a private matter is mistake by these people. They have been falsely led to believe that abortion is a private matter and you are, no doubt, partially responsible for them thinking this way.
Would be interesting to see what poll results are compared to actual votes when it comes to abortion. I wonder if it’s like some other issues, in which people poll in a way that would make them appear more favorable, and vote other ways. I see these polls, and then look at the votes – Florida amendment 6 – 55-45, SD measure 11 – 55-45, Mississippi personhood, 58-42.
There seems to be a disconnect between the polls and the votes.
‘Push polling’ Ex-GOP?
I think there are two main differences between the US and the Nordic type countries. I also think those differences are linked to an extent.
Firstly – from my observation of the countries who have comfortably settled for the 20/18/12 week cut-off, they don’t have the problem of religion impacting socially and, even more, politically to the extent it does in the US.
Secondly – again, from my observation, once they agreed on 20/18/12 weeks almost everyone just went home and got on with things. The debate was over to any significant extent.
If 20 or 18 or even 12 weeks became the cut-off point everywhere in the US, I think only a small percentage of anti-choicers would go home. Activism for the complete eradication of womens choice would continue largely unabated.
Good article in Bloomberg regarding women in South Texas already buying Cytotec, a stomach ulcer drug that causes miscarriages.
Women are going to continue to abort; maybe not all of them, but many will still do it. And, they can get Cytotec in Mexico easily.
Women can also self-infect with a certain type of bacteria that will cause miscarriage, then can be treated with antibiotics thereafter, with no long-term health problems.
People are really resourceful at finding ways to kill other human beings.
What’s your point? That killing human beings should be legal because people are going to do it anyway?
I have observed most people have no strong beliefs and simply want to avoid being seen as mean or offending. It’s the whole silly “I would never have an abortion but I can’t tell someone else that” belief. Relativism has utterly eaten away the foundation of the rule of law or the notion of rights in our common body politic. Apathy allows the abortion status quo to continue, but only apathy props it up. Apathy however doesn’t last forever.
“blatherskite”
Yay, I learned a new word today! Thanks, rasqual. I must find a way to work this into some conversations.
This is funny. I suspect that HuffPo was tilting so far to the left, their wingnuts were falling off.
A little balanced reporting of actual facts should level their wings a bit, and set them back on course for advancing their agenda.
“we’ve met many locals outside Carhart’s Germantown, MD clinic who had no idea abortion was legal through nine months for virtually any reason.”
This is not surprising. In Canada, there’s no abortion law (and I mean actually no law, not just one with loosely defined “health” exceptions), yet polls often show that something like half of all people think it’s only legal during the first trimester. We really need to get the public informed.
JDC, Canadians think abortion is only legal in the first trimester because the original bill that was passed under Pierre Trudeau’s government legalized abortion on a graduated basis according to trimesters. Our Supremes overruled this law which left Canada without any laws on abortion. Unlike the USA Supremes the Canadian Supremes prefer to make negative fiats, which vacate existing laws and does not create new law, such as Roe. On the surface it seems more benign, but it is really quite a bit more destructive for those who need the protection of the law.
If our regular abortion advocates are this riled up, it must be another blue sky day!!
While we’re at it, Blatherskite could totaly be the name of a band.
Joan, incidentally, I’m all about being deeply suspicious of the government regulating my private behavior, as you say.
But the funny thing is, I think that one of the few areas government actually has the right to be involved in is the protection of life. If someone murdered one of my loved ones, I’d be all for the government going after them or (better yet) somehow being able to prevent that from happening.
Just a thought. Because I think that protecting the life of its citizens, particularly its more innocent and vulnerable citizens, is one of the chief aims of even having a government.
And another ironic thought, I bet a bunch of these people who supposedly are “deeply suspicious of the government being involved in private affairs” were all for government regulation of health care, forcing our private doctors to conform to often stupid and unnecessary regulations, etc. And being involved in my health care is pretty darn intimate. I don’t want the government in my doctor’s office, or in my bedroom, or even in my marriage. But when it comes to the taking of an innocent life? Yeah, that’s okay. Because – and be careful, the following might send you into epileptic spasms – abortion is not health care.
I should note that despite the overwhelming belief that there should at least be some to many restrictions on abortion, if not an outright ban, only 26% thought the government “has a right and obligation to pass restrictions on abortion,” leaving me to wonder who in the world they think should enact the restrictions they support.
All that really says is that how you frame the issue (and word the question) can drastically change the results. If you were to word it in terms of protecting babies before they’re born rather than the government regulating a woman’s private medical decisions, I bet you’d see the opposite.
If you take the spin off, 47% of respondents think abortion should generally be illegal.
Kel, women will self-abort, and your precious little fetuses will be flushed down the sewer.