At its recent convention in New Orleans, the National Organization for Women announced a new campaign ”to mobilize the pro-choice majority” to block laws restricting abortion. Here we have the familiar fraud of the pro-choice movement, falsely identifying its demand for abortion on request with the will of the majority.
NOW is by no means alone in relying on this phony consensus. Last year, Planned Parenthood ran a series of newspaper ads defending the unrestricted right to abortion and claiming that ”most Americans share Planned
Parenthood`s commitment.”
The truth about public opinion on abortion isn`t easy to find. Depending on how you phrase the question, you can induce a majority of Americans to agree or disagree with almost any proposition. All pollsters know this, but none of them publicize it.
Abortion is a perfect illustration. The New York Times/CBS News Poll once asked, ”Do you think there should be an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting abortions, or shouldn`t there be such an amendment?” Only 29 percent said yes, 62 percent no. Later in the poll, the same group was asked, ”Do you believe there should be an amendment to the Constitution protecting the life of the unborn child, or shouldn`t there be such an amendment?” This time 50 percent said yes, 39 percent no.
That doesn`t mean there is no way to gauge what Americans really think about abortion. Forced to choose between banning all abortions and banning none, the majority shifts according to how the questions are loaded.
But this is a misleading choice that skews the result toward the pro-choice position. For one thing, most pro-life groups wouldn`t ban all abortions. Most would allow them when the mother`s life is endangered.
For another, there is a range of positions between the poles. Given the choice, most Americans would allow abortion in some cases but not others. In a Newsweek poll taken last January by Gallup, only 21 percent of the respondents said abortion should be legal in ”all circumstances.” Fully 55 percent said it should be legal only in ”certain circumstances,” and 21 percent said it should be illegal in all.
As a rule, Americans think abortions should be allowed in the hard cases
–rape, incest, severe risk to the mother`s health–if they are performed in the first trimester. The Newsweek poll confirmed previous surveys: 58 percent of those polled said they supported ”a ban on all abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother`s life is endangered,” with just 36 percent opposed.
In most other circumstances, the public rejects legal abortion. Most Americans oppose it after the first trimester except to save the mother`s life. Even in cases of rape or incest, one survey found, only 32 percent would allow second-trimester abortions. Most would not allow it without the husband`s consent. Most do not think the federal government should pay for abortions for poor women.
Most, in short, reject the full pro-choice platform of groups like NOW. It thinks abortion should be entirely the decision of each woman and her doctor–regardless of her reasons, her stage of pregnancy or her financial means.
That doesn`t mean pro-lifers have a majority, either. Only a small proportion of the public–15 or 20 percent–accepts the argument that a fetus is a human being whose life must be protected unless its mother`s life is endangered by the pregnancy. Winning the contest for public opinion will require changing the minds of nearly half the people who now disagree with them.
But, then, pro-lifers don`t habitually claim to have overwhelming popular support. Their opponents point to a mythical consensus for their views while opposing any step that would allow voters to decide abortion policy through democratic means. If NOW ever succeeds in mobilizing the majority on abortion, it won`t like what it gets.
Correction: In my last column, I mistakenly wrote that Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Los Angeles have enacted ordinances treating pornography as a violation of women`s civil rights. The Minneapolis city council passed its version twice, but both times it was vetoed by the mayor. In Los Angeles, the city council rejected the proposal. Indianapolis did adopt the law. I apologize for the error.
