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For immediate
release:
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
NARAL, PLANNED PARENTHOOD WRONG ABOUT PUBLIC OPINION
An advance notice of today’s press conference by NARAL, Planned Parenthood
and other groups favoring abortion asserted that "poll after poll indicates
that the majority of Americans are pro-choice. . . . This event will send a
strong, clear message: Women WILL fight for their rights."
In reality, poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans support
greatly increased protections for unborn children -- and women reject the
so-called pro-choice agenda in numbers greater than men.
For example, in the Newsweek poll released June 1, those who identified
themselves as "pro-life" outnumbered those who identified themselves as
"pro-choice," 48% to 47% -- but among women only, those who chose "pro-life"
outnumbered "pro-choice" 50% to 45%.
In a Gallup poll conducted May 5-7, sixty-one percent wanted abortion to be
"illegal in all circumstances" (19%) or "legal in only a few circumstances"
(42%), for a total of at least 61% who clearly reject the agenda of the
groups gathered today. A Gallup poll conducted in January also demonstrated
other respects in which large majorities oppose actual effects of Roe v.
Wade as currently applied by a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court -- for
example, 61% said it "should be illegal" to obtain an abortion "when the
woman or family cannot afford to raise the child" and 70% favored a ban on
partial-birth abortion in both the first and second trimesters.
It should be noted that in its Casey ruling (1992), the Supreme Court
majority explicitly reaffirmed Roe v. Wade and held that the "abortion
right" applies with equal force throughout the first and second trimesters
until "viability," writing, "We reject the trimester framework, which we do
not consider to be part of the essential holding of Roe." In Stenberg v.
Carhart (2000), a five-justice majority held that Roe also guarantees the
right of abortionists to perform partial-birth abortions.
Regrettably, six current justices have voted to affirm Roe v. Wade: Justices
Breyer, Ginsburg, Kennedy, O'Connor, Souter, and Stevens. Only three of the
current justices have ever voted to overturn or substantially scale back
Roe: Justices Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas. Justice Kennedy, while a backer
of Roe, did vote to allow the Nebraska ban on the partial-birth abortion
method to stand.
In the June 1 Newsweek poll, asked whether an unborn child killed in a crime
should be charged as a homicide, 84% responded affirmatively. The 84%
includes 56% who said this principle should apply at all stages of prenatal
development, and 28% who said it should apply after "viability." Only 9%
adopted the position of the pro-abortion lobby, that the law should never
regard an unborn child as a homicide victim. A national Fox/Opinion Dynamics
poll conducted in April found nearly identical figures -- 84% in favor of a
double homicide charge, 7% against.
In the Newsweek poll, asked when a human life begins, overall 46% said at
fertiization and 12% said at implantation (which is just a few days later),
these two groups totaling 58% -- but among women only, the figures were 52%
and 13%, respectively, for a total of 65%.
The National Right to Life Committee is the nation’s largest pro-life group
with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide.
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