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Pro-Abortionists Try to Explain
Gallup Conclusion that Pro-Life
is "New Normal" Part Two of Three By Dave Andrusko Yesterday it was my pleasure to write about what Gallup calls the "new normal"--more Americans continuing to identify as pro-life than as "pro-choice." Writing at www. gallup.com, Lydia Saad drew this conclusion because the results earlier this month was the third time in a year that pro-life self-identification won out--in this instance 47% to 45%.
The subtitle is a good teaser: "It's because of Obama, but not just for the reason you might think." Saad's explanation for why "the pro-life label has become increasingly dominant among Republicans and to a lesser degree among independents, while the pro-choice label has become more dominant among Democrats," is that "The trends by party identification suggest that increased political polarization may be a factor in Republicans' preference for the 'pro-life' label, particularly since Barack Obama took office." Grose sites this and then spins it in an interesting way, without ever saying definitively this is her own conclusion: Obama has done pro-abortionists wrong. Pardon? Borrowing from a political scientist, Grose says of Nathanial Persily that he "attributes the shift toward the pro-life label to Obama's softening of the language of Democratic support for abortion. Obama said about abortion in 2008 during his campaign that 'there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates.' For those in the mushy middle on abortion, hearing a president--even one who identifies as pro-choice--question the morality of abortion might scare them away from Planned Parenthood benefits," according to Grose.
I assume we are to take this
seriously--but, of course, we
don't, as no one over the age of
13 would. What else? According to Aimee R. Thorne-Thomsen, identified as the former executive director of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project (who is "skeptical of the Gallup numbers"), "twentysomethings have 'grown up under a political system that demonized sexuality. Their consciousness has been under abstinence-only, promotion-of-marriage initiatives, so it's a very narrowly based idea of appropriate behavior.'" To which Grose adds, "Which, for more young people in their 20s, does not include abortion." Of course there are wheel barrels full of thousand dollar bills for every quarter expended on abstinence-only sex education, but let's let that go. While the explanation is a function of pro-abortionists' worse paranoia, the description of what has ensued is accurate: For more young people abortion IS not "appropriate behavior." But there has to be a happy ending, right? Yes. According to Grose, as the public focuses on the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan, it'll all get better and "pro-choice" self-identification will climb. Why? Because the abortion issue will be raised and "the issue tends to help the pro-choice side--because, in the end, most people don't want to overturn Roe v. Wade." Proof? She cites a loaded CBS News/New York Times poll conducted earlier this year. But a more recent Washington Post/ABC News poll (hardly pro-life stalwarts) showed that even when Roe is described in the most muted, understated fashion, 38% of the respondents said they wanted the next Supreme Court justice to vote to overturn Roe--an increase of 6% in only five years! (See www.nrlc.org/NewsToday/PublicRefuses.html) Sorry, Ms. Grose, nice try but your explanations won't fly. The American public is growing more and more pro-life: women and men, young and old. Please read "National Right to Life News Today" (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org), and send your comments on any article to daveandrusko@gmail.com. |
I
was wondering how
pro-abortionists would answer
the question (as posed by the
headline for Jessica Grose's
essay at Slate.com) "Why Are
More Americans Calling
themselves Pro-Life?"