Gallup Poll Shows Labels Do Not Reflect Beliefs

Gallup released its annual Values and Belief survey results and found that 49 % of those surveyed considered themselves "pro-choice" while 45 % of respondents call themselves "pro-life." However, when respondents were asked about when or if abortion should be legal, a majority were conservative in their response. Twenty-six percent agreed that abortion should be legal under any circumstances (the current status of abortion in the U.S.) and 15 % said it should be legal under most circumstances.

Forty percent agreed that abortion should be legal in a few circumstances and 18 % said it should be illegal in all circumstances. This is a total of 58 percent.

When asked about partial-birth abortions, 72 % of respondents agreed that it should be illegal versus 22 % who agreed that it should be legal and five percent who (strangely) cited "no opinion" about this heinous procedure.

While 53 % do not want to see Roe overturned, this is a considerable change from only two years ago when 63 % said they did not want Roe overturned.

Most Americans know little about the actual Roe decision and how broad it was in it's scope. Yet, significantly, 16 % said that they would only vote for candidates who share their opinion on abortion (Gallup does not break this down into pro-life v. pro-abortion in the summary). While that number may not seem very large, 6 in 10 said that a candidate's position on abortion is one of many important issues they consider when voting. Only 23 % said they did not see abortion as a "major issue" in how they voted.

Poll Shows Americans Oppose Majority of Abortions

A recent poll conducted by Ayres, McHenry and Associates, Inc. and commissioned by the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Judicial Confirmation Network showed that many Americans reject the status quo of abortion on demand.

Most Americans are ill-informed when it comes to the facts on the issue. Most people don't realize there are 1.3 million abortions a year or that more than 90 percent of all abortions are done for reasons such as the mother not being married or not ready to have a child or that a child would interrupt her plans for a career or education-- just to name a few.

When asked whether abortion should be legal or illegal in the following circumstances, the percent of respondents who wanted abortion to be illegal were:

doesn't like the gender of the child 79 %

thinks the child would interfere with her education or other career plans 72 %

has all the children she wants 64 %

feels she is not ready to have a child 63 %

is not married 62 %

When is comes to overturning Roe v. Wade, opinions on Roe changed when respondents were told that Roe means that states can't restrict abortion even for the reasons listed above and that overturning Roe means that states could pass laws that would address this by permitting abortions for some reasons and not for others. Forty-three percent favored reversing Roe (versus 35 % who favored this at first) and 48 % said that they would not favor reversing Roe.

It's only a matter of time before the majority of Americans realize that abortion groups have sold them a bill of goods. Because of its very nature, most Americans shy away from indepth discussions of the issue and, for many, this means they know the "facts" of abortion about as well as they understand quantum physics.

Many thanks to Dave Andrusko, editor of NRLNews, for putting this information out.