How Many Believe Abortion Should be Legal in "All or Most Cases?" 57%
That is the result of a new poll in the State of Iowa. It shows a dramatic increase in support of abortion rights in one year. Iowa cannot be regarded as a "liberal" state, it went 60% for Trump in the 2020 election.
It's been my thought for years the politics of abortion are similar, maybe identical, to the politics of prohibition. Beer and whiskey caused absenteeism at work, divorce, illness and was a sin. That was repeated until a majority thought it was correct and prohibition was passed. But prohibition changed the reasoning of many in the public. The new thought was, "Wait a minute. That affects me."
Support in Iowa for abortion rose 8% since 2020. The only thing that has changed is the Texas anti abortion event. Like prohibition, it's "Wait a minute. That affects me (or those close to me)." It changed the politics of abortion rights.
Certainly, what happened in Iowa polling may not represent all of the U.S. But, with 66% of women polling in favor of all or most abortions my guess is the U.S. in general has moved since the Texas case to favor more than ever abortion rights.
What about the "abortion is sin" argument? First of all, the Bible does not condemn abortion. Many leading scholars agree it does not. Second, let's remember beer was a sin--and caused, it was thought, so many of society's ills Today it causes the same ills it caused before prohibition. But people wanted beer so we have it in spite of the problems it causes. End of story. No matter how high the holy noses are held about abortion, a majority of the public wants abortion to be legal.
I'm sure there will be other polls with different results. But one thing is certain. There is no groundswell of public opinion against abortion. Clever manipulation of legal issues by anti abortion operatives in Texan and Mississippi have not moved public opinion toward outlawing abortions.
If anything, this poll suggests anti abortion legal victories have moved public opinion to the pro choice side.
Poll questions are generally designed to evoke the answer which the pollster wants.
ReplyDeleteSince when did you become a "believer"? I'm pretty sure that you put belief about 10 rungs down the ladder to hell from scientific truth. But there it is, for all to see, "How many people believe ..."
The US public have rejected abortion more and more each year from about a peak in 1980. The abortion rate has halved from 40 years ago. A social scientist (is that an oxymoron) might want to try to understand that fact. We used to speak about about 4200 abortions/day in 1980. It is now about 2200 abortions/day. And the population in the USA in 1980 was about 230M. Today, we are about 333M.
Hitler got away with his atrocities by claiming certain races to be inferior, sub-human, not worthy of procreating. The same is true of you when you trivialize human life. Claiming the Bible does not condemn abortion? "Many leading scholars ..." Even a child knows what is inside her mother's tummy when her mom is pregnant.
I know you are fearful and running scared thinking Roe may be overturned by the SCOTUS. I expect your lies to continue.
To quote, the Guttmacher Institute, "Between 2011 and 2017, the U.S. abortion landscape changed significantly. As documented by the Guttmacher Institute’s periodic abortion provider census, all the main measures of abortion declined, including the number of abortions, the abortion rate and the abortion ratio.1,2 The declines are part of trends that go back decades." The source is https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2019/09/us-abortion-rate-continues-drop-once-again-state-abortion-restrictions-are-not-main
Matt-- "The U.S. public have rejected abortion more and more each year from a peak in 1980."
DeleteThis propaganda technique you are using is called "misdirection." Everyone knows they have fallen. If women were "rejecting" abortion they would be having babies they otherwise would not have because of abortion. They are not. They are having fewer babies. The number of abortions has dropped because of better birth control. Also, I have read there has been a drop in sexual activity by teens.
Please stop saying things that are obviously false.
Abortion rate can be measured many ways. One way is the number of abortions in a year divided by the number of people in the USA in that year, on average. So, in 1980 there were 0.006665 abortions per person. In 2021, there were 0.0024114. So, we're talking an abortion rate 1/3 of the rate in 1980.
ReplyDeleteAnother measure would be the number of abortions in relation to the number of total pregnancies, throwing out the number of miscarriages. Amazingly, the data shows about 3,612,258 births in 1980 and 3,605,201 births in 2020. So, in 1980 the abortion rate was about 0.2985, i.e. 29.85% of all pregnancies. In 2020, the abortion rate was about .1821, i.e. 18.21% of all pregnancies.
What interests me is the sub-plot. You have claimed, and I believe you, that the proportion of "nones" in the USA is growing and is certainly higher than the number of that were present in 1980.
So, how do these unreligious people find a rationale for not aborting their children? Science? Goodness? Sick of Democrats and their deep dive into the pro-death camp?
Matt--"In 1980 ..29.85% (ended by abortion)...in 2020 18.21%..."
ReplyDeleteYou are saying this represents a decrease in support for abortion or an increase in anti abortion religious beliefs?? It represents more and better birth control. There are fewer unplanned pregnancies.
The stats are talking so loud I can't hear a word you are saying.
DeleteMatt "The stats are talking so loud I can't hear a word you are saying."
ReplyDeleteAnd Trump won the election. You and statistics are not a good match.
If women were "rejecting" abortion they would be having babies they otherwise would not have because of abortion. They are not. They are having fewer babies. - Jon Lindgren
DeleteHmmm. So, the number of births in 1980 and 2020 (can we agree that is 40 years apart?) were nearly identical, 3.6 million. The number of aborted children in 1980 was about 1.53 million. The number of aborted children in 2020 was about 0.803 million.
Therefore, the number of pregnant women in 1980 was about 5.13 million while in 2020 it was 4.403 million, even with a jump of 103 million people. That's about a 30% jump in population over 40 years.
So, regardless of "birth control", the facts are clear to most rational people. The number of pregnancies has dramatically dropped over 40 years, from 5.13 million to 4.403 million, even while the population has increased about 30%. The number of births in 1980 is the same as 2020. The number of abortions has dropped dramatically, almost 50%!
You can make the case that "birth control" has led to a smaller pregnancy rate although this is not known. We simply don't know how many pregnancies there would have occurred sans any data on contraception. You can guess. Perhaps you have a scientific source?
What we do know with proof is that the abortion rate dropped about 50% while the number of births stay about the same. If the abortion rate from 1980, 29.85%, was still the rate in 2020, the number of aborted children would have been 1,146,000. Instead, the number of aborted children in 2020 is 803,000. That's 343,000 children celebrating their first birthdays in 2021!!! All because women have rejected abortion at much higher rate now then they did in 1980.
Got that? 343,000 people not aborted.
Matt-- "...sans any data on contraception."
DeleteI have asked you before, and I'm requesting again, that you not write things here that are incorrect. It makes more work for me because I then have to write material here to correct you. This additional work leaves me tempted to turn off entirely the comment opportunities.
There is plenty of data on contraception use. One place it is available is the same place you got the data you put up here, Guttmacher. It says contraception use by women increased until 2002. It is now 99% among Catholics and Protestants, less for some others.
I'm not going look it up but it is widely known contraception methods and much more reliable today than in past decades.
https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/contraceptive-use-united-states
Hahaha, that is ripe. You asking me to stop writing things that are incorrect! You really should get an unbiased editor and publisher. Limit yourself to posting your far far left and anti-theistic here and we'd be happy for a separate editor. As it stands, you are just like the old Soviet and current Chinese new agencies. Everyone's opinion is correct if they don't disagree with Mao or Korbachev.
ReplyDeleteYou ignore basic science and now you are anti-arithmetic.
I could care less if you publish my comments or discard them like you threaten.
Turn off comments and let the blog die. If it had 1000 legs it would be on its last one. I only participate to sharpen my debating skills, not to debate someone who is also the moderator and the debate judge.
ReplyDelete