I often choose to highlight abortion polling notbecause public opinion should be dispositive (the moral and scientific humanity of an unborn child should not determined by her ‘wantedness,’ regardless of what people might say) but because the Left often frames opposition to abortion as an “extreme” view. It isn’t. Large majorities of Americans favor significant restrictions on abortion, with a majority often adopting a broadly pro-life stance on the issue. This is not true within the modern Democratic party, within large coastal cities, or within major American newsrooms, however, which is why coverage of abortion politics is so out-of-step with public opinion. When Texas considered its ban on most abortions after the fifth month of gestation, the national press stampeded to Austin to report on the “controversial” bill, frequently portraying abortion zealot Wendy Davis as a heroine. The legislation was actually quite popular both nationally and in Texas, especially among women, and Davis went on to get crushed in the subsequent gubernatorial election by nearly a million votes.
Now that similar legislation is under consideration in Washington, the abortion lobby and their media accomplices are again pretending that it’s an “extreme” idea that would prevent women from obtaining “routine” medical “care.” There’s nothing routine about second and third trimester elective abortions, which do not qualify as medical care. Try as they might, the deep-pocketed abortion industry cannot seem to demagogue Americans into opposing heavy restrictions on late-term abortions. A new McLaughlin & Associates poll of likely voters, commissioned by the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, shows that a sizable majority of the public favors legislation to limit abortion after five months of pregnancy:
Democrats & much of the media call one of these abortion stances "extreme." pic.twitter.com/WT6FBpa5Bz
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 17, 2017