Doug Henwood Talks

Michael Pollak wrote:

>

[This is an interesting tack. Normally if you ask people their position on abortion, the answers are ambiguous and overlapping and discouraging. Here, when they ask about what side they identify with — pro-life or pro-choice — and whether Roe v. Wade should be overturned — the real point at issue — the results seem surprisingly stark and encouraging]

http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=NC&pubid=1134#prochoice

Public Opinion Watch November 9, 2005 Ruy Teixeira, The Century Foundation, 11/9/2005

It’s Definitely a Pro-Choice, Pro-Roe v. Wade Country

So your subject heading was a Freudian slip?

If you force Americans to make the choice - “pro-life” or “pro-choice” - they choose choice, like the good Americans they are. But, like I told Woj yesterday, this is a split-the-difference country. On specifics, there’s a strong bias to restricting abortion. So overturning Roe v. Wade, to the middle American mind, would be “radical,” but so would making abortion free on demand.

For example, in a May 2003 poll, Gallup asked about circumstances under which abortion should be legal in the first and third trimesters. 82% thought abortion should be legal in the first trimester if the mother’s life was endangered; 72% thought it should be legal when the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest; 60% if the child would be born with a life-threatening illness; 50%, if child would be mentally disabled; 41% when the woman does not want the child for any reason.

Doug

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.