Poll: Majority of U.S. adults identify as 'pro-life'

[babylonsister]

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/05/16/Poll-Majority-identify-as-pro-life/UPI-89031242490971/

Poll: Majority identify as 'pro-life'
Published: May 16, 2009 at 12:22 PM


PRINCETON, N.J., May 16 (UPI) -- A Gallup Poll indicates for the first time since it started asking the question 14 years ago that a majority of U.S. adults describe themselves as "pro-life."

In the poll released Friday, 51 percent called themselves "pro-life," while 42 percent considered themselves "pro-choice," The Washington Post reported Saturday. That's a significant reversal from last year's poll when 50 percent said they were "pro-choice" while 44 percent called themselves "pro-life."

The change comes at a time when the Obama administration is trying to convince those on opposite sides of the abortion battle they can find middle ground, the Post reported.

The poll was conducted via telephone May 7-10 with 1,015 adults and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Edit to add m$nbc link, and guess what? Obama gets a lot of the blame. Pew and gallup did polling...


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30771408/

[MADem]

1. You can be pro-life and also be pro-choice.

It all depends on your concept of when "life" begins.

People who support the death penalty certainly aren't "pro-life." IMO.

[Deja Q]

3. Under better circumstances, we probably wouldn't need that penalty.

But then, some who are serial rapists, multiple murders, and bona fide psychopaths -- I need convincing they're worth keeping around while their victims are dead or, worse, get to live the rest of their lives in agony thanks to those bastards.

[MADem]

23. I know. The inability of Mike Dukakis to respond to that issue

without sounding like a dry, starchy professor certainly didn't help him in his quest for the presidency!

It's one of those things that is hard to stick with as a mindset when the crime is particularly heinous.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

2. B.S. TO BE SURE

[Jane Austin]

4. How did they ask the quesiton?

Did they include the concepts of "killing a baby", "destroying life" or other loaded words?

I wouldn't put much stock in this poll unless I knew how they asked a question so charged with emotion.

[TwilightZone]

5. I wonder how people would respond if the choices were more accurate:

1) Pro-choice
2) Anti-choice

"Pro-life" is a misnomer. They're not pro-life. They're pro-live birth.

That's not pro-life, it's anti-choice. Forced birth.

[sakabatou]

6. I think George Carlin had it nailed

"Pro-life is anti-woman. Anti-woman."

[babylonsister]

7. m$nbc link here: gallup and pew polled this, and doncha know,

Obama gets a lot of the blame for the results. :crazy:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30771408/

[OHdem10]

8. You realize Gallop skews Republican.

[babylonsister]

15. No, I didn't. I know Rasmussen does, but didn't know about Gallup. nt

[underpants]

9. 1. they aren't voting that way 2. some of this is personal morality cover

[konnichi wa]

10. That big a switch in just a year isn't credible. Something about the poll is different.

I don't trust these numbers.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. BUT, in the same poll, 75% either strongly or somewhat supported the

right of others to seek an abortion.

[burning rain]

13. That's more relevant.

Getting to the legality of abortion, I mean. Just adopting the labels "pro-life" or "pro-choice" is often just logomachy and saying what one thinks sounds nice.

[redqueen]

20. "75% support legal abortion"... why would that make a good headline?

Needs more anti-choice spin, clearly.

[tularetom]

12. The term "pro life" is among the most misleading expressions in the English language

The real term is anti abortion. These fuckers are not pro life at all. Pro fetus maybe but for them "life" ends at birth.

[fishwax]

14. Perhaps I'm overly optimistic, but I think it's more a dilution of the "pro-life" "brand" than an

erosion of support for reproductive freedom.

[ck4829]

16. I'm "pro-life" but I support a woman's right to choose 100%

I don't think children should be dying from preventable diseases and I think our war of choice needs to end, how can I not be pro-life?

[babylonsister]

17. Wouldn't that make you pro-choice? You choose

what you want, but allow women to make up their own minds without dictating what choice they have to make?

[ck4829]

18. Yes.

In the end, this poll really is just about semantics. Not a single anti-abortion bill has passed a vote of the people in years, and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon.

[seabeyond]

19. i am fuckin pro life too. i dont believe in abortions. i dont get abortions

and i am not gonna tell someone else whether they have to live my beliefs

i wonder if in past they have stated pro life or anti abortion

[pipoman]

21. When will this debate be over,

I mean really, it has been going on for 40 years, every election cycle the MSM trot it into the arena as if it is in the top 10 issues people vote on....I don't believe it is any longer... Give it a cigarette and put it to bed already......

edit..this screed isn't directed at you babylonsister, at the issue in general.

[spanone]

22. 'significant reversal' sounds a little suspicious to moi......

i don't see anything in my surroundings to indicate of shift of that many percentage points....?

[donheld]

24. I am totally pro-life but also totally pro-choice