Gallup first: more Americans now “pro-life” than “pro-choice”
America may have a president and Congress that support abortion rights, but a new Gallup poll suggests that for the first time such a stance is not the majority view.
Gallup said on Friday that a new poll, conducted May 7 to 10, found “51 percent of Americans calling themselves ‘pro-life’ on the issue of abortion and 42 percent ‘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.”
“The new results, obtained from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, represent a significant shift from a year ago, when 50 percent were pro-choice and 44 percent pro-life. Prior to now, the highest percentage identifying as pro-life was 46 percent, in both August 2001 and May 2002.”
Underscoring how divisive the issue remains, the poll further found that 23 percent of Americans felt abortion should be illegal in all circumstances and 22 percent said it should be legal in all circumstances.
Still, it found that 53 percent held to a middle view — that is should be legal in certain circumstances. That figure, Gallup said, has been steady since 1975.
A few other things stand out. The percentage of Republicans and those who lean to that party who lablel themselves “pro-life” rose by 10 percentage points over the past year to 70 percent. As there was essentially no shift among Democrats on this issue (33 percent said they were “pro-life,” unchanged since last year) much of the shift clearly came from the Republican side. Does this suggest a hardening among the party faithful, whose numbers have also been in decline, in reaction to the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama?
Another day, another faith coalition
Is it my imagination, or are there lots of new faith coalitions and initiatives sprouting up these days?
The newest one, launched on Wednesday, is The Mobilization to End Poverty. Its main driver is Sojourners, which claims to be the biggest group of self-styled “progressive” Christians in the United States.
The coalition will hold a conference in Washington from April 26-29. The organizers describe it as a “a historic gathering where thousands of Christians and antipoverty leaders will engage in a transformative experience of education, worship, community, and activism in Washington, D.C. Together, this powerful group will call on President Obama and the new Congress to make overcoming poverty a political priority and to develop a national plan that addresses this moral and spiritual crisis.”
It would be easy to dismiss this as just another gabfest at which everyone talks about the poor while the caterers put on a good spread.
But it’s noteworthy that many of these initiatives in recent years — such as the Evangelical Climate Initiative – have come from the religious center or left. There have been many such efforts in the past (the Social Gospel movement of the late 19th century springs to mind).
Whether the initiatives from the left/center are as effective politically as the Religious Right has been remains to be seen. The latter at times excelled at pressing its agenda by getting ballot measures passed against gay marriage or by getting the vote out for the Republican Party (or both at the same time).
the question is irrelevant, as spiritual issues lie without the pale of legislation, regulation, or judicial fiat. the best that governments can do is to leave people alone; ie stop policies and programmes which damage families and feed the fires of entitlement and sloth
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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I actually do see some truth in what pro – life activists think. For example, it WOULD be our duty to oppose the law if we lived in nazi Germany, to try to prevent a holocaust. But I see one huge and insurmountable difference between nazi Germany and the current state of abortion rights. That is that, right now, the mother decides. The pregnant woman makes the terrible, sad, and personal decision. If the state forced her to have a baby that she could not care for, did not want, or that would kill her in delivery, that would be the real nazi analog.
Though fetuses are living humans, there are worse things that can happen to a person than never being born. And all of those things happen to children born to underage, underprivileged, and troubled parents. If a baby gets born but is never loved, that is a worse outcome to me. I recently read that people who experience any detrimental childhood circumstances are 5 times more likely to die from suicide. If the mothers have children when and only when they can take care of them, there will be more lives worth living.