Wrong Questions Yield Wrong Answers
One poll doesn't a trend make, but still, this is disturbing news for supporters of legalized abortion:
A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.
That's a big change since 1995, when 56% of Americans called themselves pro-choice, while only 33% called themselves pro-life.
But to me, the terms themselves, pro-choice and pro-life, are meaningless at best. I consider myself both. But my view on abortion is another matter.
When the poll asked a question that avoided those terms, they got a very different answer:
Do you think abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?
Here are the results for that more pointed (and more accurate) question:
53% - Legal under certain circumstances
23% - Illegal under all circumstances
22% - Legal under any circumstances
Here, 75% of Americans believe abortion should be legal, at least in some cases. Now the question becomes, in what cases should abortion be legal? No small question with no easy answer. But it can never be answered as long as we continue to use terms that mask the real question.
