ROE v WADE
In a conversation below which began on the Death Penalty and continued with a discussion on abortion, I asked the following question:
"I would be interested to know how you think the 125,000,000 voters in the U.S. would vote on a reasonable abortion law making it illegal - with sensible penalties -and with exceptions in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother -if it were on a national ballot. I think the law would pass with a 60% majority. You?"
The set of polls at the link below have lots of data that can be interpreted many ways. My conclusions:
http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm
"I would be interested to know how you think the 125,000,000 voters in the U.S. would vote on a reasonable abortion law making it illegal - with sensible penalties -and with exceptions in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother -if it were on a national ballot. I think the law would pass with a 60% majority. You?"
The set of polls at the link below have lots of data that can be interpreted many ways. My conclusions:
- We are split pretty much down the middle.
- 20-25% think abortion should always be legal.
- 15-20% think abortion should always be illegal.
- Of the 55-65% left, 30-35% feel it should USUALLY be legal, 25-30% feel it should USUALLY be illegal; I don't know exactly how to read this but think it says any restrictions would have to be very carefully crafted.
Although I still believe illegality of abortion could be implemented if carefully crafted to protect the more reasonable instances, I think my 60% guess above is optimistic.
Evaluate the polls yourself - it is thought provoking!
http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm
Labels: Society
posted by Jim | 12:14 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for that link. It's interesting to see that for many of the questions the numbers have stayed relatively constant for quite a few years now.
There's a Portland abortion clinic not far from where I live, and there are frequently anti-abortion protesters there. I don't think showing big pictures of aborted fetuses is doing much to convert people to their cause; I suspect instead that it helps sustain the polarized situation.
In my opinion, the folks who strongly oppose abortion could be more effective at gaining support by using your line of argument - ask people if 3600 abortions a day is too many, and then look to build alliances (with those who believe that abortion should be legal in many cases) to find ways to proceed.
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