Polls on abortion are BS: 66% of pro-life voters believe the choice should be left to the woman

[Hamlette]

and not to the government.

Even among pro-life Americans, there is little support for the social agenda being pushed by the Republican Party’s leadership, with pro-life voters overwhelmingly holding the belief that abortion is ultimately the woman’s choice. According to a 2008 poll conducted by American Viewpoint for Republican Majority for Choice, 66 percent of self-described pro-life voters said abortion should be the choice of the woman and not the government.

More broadly, 52 percent of all Americans think abortion should be legal under certain circumstances, according to a Gallup Poll conducted in May. Furthermore, it seems people may be tiring of this whole conversation. A Bloomberg National Poll done earlier this year found that a full 77 percent believe that birth control shouldn’t be part of the national political debate.

. . .

Even so, states have been busy in these vineyards. In the past two years, states have introduced a total of 2,000 reproductive health provisions, mostly restrictions, according to Planned Parenthood. While 12 states require verbal counseling or written materials before an abortion to include information on ultrasound services, both Texas and Louisiana mandate that an abortion provider perform an ultrasound (not necessarily invasive) on any woman seeking an abortion and also that the provider show and describe the ultrasound image.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/08/26/what-s-wrong-with-the-republican-party.html

[empireofjade]

1. Which polls are BS?

The title of this post nearly gave me mental whiplash! First: "Polls on abortion are BS," in which the author declares all abortion polling to be false, followed, in the same title line by quoting a figure which comes from -- wait for it -- a poll on attitudes toward abortion!

If one did not read the entire post, one might even be lead to believe that the particular poll conduced by American Viewpoint was in fact "BS". After reading the post, one finds that in fact the author bases his entire argument on polls on abortion.

Finally we reach what can only be the foregone conclusion of the author: polls about abortion which show Americans to be against abortion are BS, and polls about abortion which show Americans to be for abortion rights are facts worthy of shaping the debate.

I don't mean to pick nits, but I've been search the web for analysis to help me unpack the abortion polling stats, and surely there must be something better than this...

[cynatnite]

2. My repub mother is anti-abortion...

and she is absolutely against the government dictating something that should be left up to the woman no matter her feelings.