Americans on social issues: split the difference
[note the table showing virtually identical opinions among men &
women on abortion]
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=283
Pragmatic Americans Liberal and Conservative on Social Issues Most Want Middle Ground on Abortion
Released: August 3, 2006
Summary of Findings
Americans cannot be easily characterized as conservative or liberal
on today’s most pressing social questions. The public’s point of view
varies from issue to issue. They are conservative in opposing gay
marriage and gay adoption, liberal in favoring embryonic stem cell
research and a little of both on abortion. Along with favoring no
clear ideological approach to most social issues, the public
expresses a desire for a middle ground on the most divisive social
concern of the day: abortion.
Together, the results of the latest national survey by the Pew
Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum on Religion
& Public Life suggest that the public remains reluctant to move too
far from current policies and practices on many key social policy
questions. Despite talk of “culture wars” and the high visibility of
activist groups on both sides of the cultural divide, there has been
no polarization of the public into liberal and conservative camps.
Indeed, public opinion has moved little on these issues in recent
years and continues to be mixed and often inconsistent, reflecting a
blend of pragmatism and principle. For instance, a clear majority
(56%) continues to oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry while
35% express support. But nearly as large a majority (54%) supports
allowing homosexual couples to enter into legal agreements that would
give them many of the same rights as married couples.
The survey, conducted July 6-19 among 2,003 adults, also found that
55% prefer that abortion laws be decided at the national level rather
than each state deciding for itself. This desire for a national
policy prescription extends to other social issues as well. Despite
growing antipathy toward Congress and low levels of trust in the
federal government generally, majorities or pluralities also favor a
national rather than state-by-state approach to policymaking on stem
cell research, gay marriage and whether creationism should be taught
in the schools along with evolution.
The poll also found no consensus among either supporters or opponents
of gay marriage over how far to go to press their respective
positions. Barely half of all those who favor allowing gays to marry
say supporters should “push hard” to make it legal as soon as
possible, while slightly more than four-in-ten urge caution so as to
avoid creating “bad feelings against homosexuals.” Similarly, only a
small majority (54%) of gay marriage opponents favor amending the
U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage. The public is similarly
divided on other hot-button issues. A slim majority (52%) opposes
allowing gays and lesbians to adopt children.
Abortion continues to split the country nearly down the middle. But
there is consensus in one key area: two out of three Americans (66%)
support finding “a middle ground” when it comes to abortion. Only
three-in-ten (29%), by contrast, believe “there’s no room for
compromise when it comes to abortion laws.” This desire to find
common ground extends broadly across the political and ideological
spectrum.
Majorities of Republicans (62%), Democrats (70%) and political
independents (66%) favor a compromise. So do majorities of liberals,
moderates and conservatives. More than six-in-ten white evangelicals
also support compromise, as do 62% of white, non-Hispanic Catholics.
Only one group expressed unwillingness to find a middle way. Two-
thirds (66%) of those who support an outright ban on abortion say
there should be no compromise. In contrast, two-thirds of those who
want abortion to be generally available are ready to seek an
accommodation.
An even larger consensus emerged on another issue. By more than 4-1,
the public says pharmacists who personally oppose birth control for
religious reasons should still be required to sell birth control
pills to women. But while the public is overwhelmingly opposed to
allowing pharmacists to refuse to sell birth control, there is less
consensus on other issues having to do with pharmaceuticals and
reproductive rights.
For instance, Americans split 48% to 41% over whether to allow women
to obtain the so-called morning-after pill without first obtaining a
doctor’s prescription. The pill contains high doses of hormones
which, when taken shortly after unprotected intercourse, can prevent
ovulation or the implantation of a fertilized egg.
On another contentious issue related to reproduction, a majority of
the public (56%) continues to believe that it is more important to
conduct stem cell research that may lead to new medical cures rather
than to avoid destroying the potential life of human embryos involved
in the research (32%). For the first time in Pew polling, more white
evangelicals now favor stem cell research (44%) than oppose it (40%).
Taken together, the findings on stem cells, abortion, conscience
clauses for pharmacists and the morning-after pill underscore the
public’s deep ambivalence on reproductive rights.
[…]