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New Gallup Poll Shows Overwhelming Support for Abortion Restrictions

PollA new Gallup poll released today shows new overwhelming support for common sense restrictions on abortion.

The poll asked whether people favored or opposed seven of the most popular abortion-restricting measures such as informed consent, a 24 hour waiting period and parental consent for abortion for minors. Of the seven, five were favored by a majority, usually a significant one.

For example, informed consent was favored by 87%, parental consent by 71% and a 24 hour waiting period by 69%. Laws banning partial-birth abortion and requiring a woman to view an ultrasound before an abortion also held majorities, albeit smaller ones of 46% and 50% respectively.

Conscience Clauses and Abortion Funding Trail in Support

The only measures that did not receive majority support were conscience clauses for pharmacists and doctors and laws prohibiting health centers that perform abortions from receiving federal funds. This is hardly surprising since these are the very issues Planned Parenthood has been hammering in the media with every PR dollar at their disposal.

Since Planned Parenthood has been on such a massive media blitz about their funding, it makes sense that more people who would otherwise think differently would have ingested some of the abortion industry’s talking points. But even on those two issues, the majority opposing the measures were slim—a scant 51% for the conscience clause and 57% for the federal funding ban.

Gender Plays a Roll in Abortion Opinions

We’ve known for a long time that Americans support common sense restrictions on abortion, but it was interesting to see Gallup’s breakdown of support for these measures by gender:

Poll results

Women favored the 24 hour waiting period, parental consent, informed consent and an ultrasound requirement more than men while men supported the partial-birth ban, the ban on federal funds and the conscience clauses more than women.

The logical connection between the issues seems to be that women are thinking more in terms of what helps women, what provides women with the information they need, what protects women from predators. Men, on the other hand, are thinking in terms of principles, of opt-out provisions, banning funding or certain procedures—not really issues that have a direct effect on women’s lives.

But in the end, whatever the reasons, we are seeing larger majorities than ever before supporting these measures, and we know from the abortionists themselves that these incremental measures choke off their business and make Roe v. Wade nearly useless by making abortion harder and harder to obtain.

Huge Majorities Oppose Abortion After 1st Trimester

The very best part of the survey, however, came at the end when respondents were asked, “Thinking generally, do you think abortion should generally be legal or generally illegal during each of the following stages of pregnancy: 1st three months, 2nd three months, Last three months.”

Poll results

And the good news is that the vast majority of Americans believe not only that abortion is wrong, but that it should be illegal for the last 2/3 of the pregnancy, and a solid 35% believe it should be illegal entirely. This is exactly this growing cultural momentum that will lead to the overthrow of the unlimited abortion license in our country.

Activism IS Working

Just last week, a prominent pro-life community activist was regaling me with the same tired lines about how activism hasn’t worked since it hasn’t overturned Roe v. Wade in over 35 years. But that’s simply not true.

Sure, the victory isn’t complete, but when Roe v. Wade was handed down, the press said the issue was over. They said everyone would go back to their normal lives and abortion would be accepted as regular medical practice. But activism has ensured that it didn’t go down that way.

Activism has kept abortion the topic of front page news for decades and has kept abortion a dirty word in the mind of the American public. Activism has affected the American people to such an extent that we have majority support—even among Democrats—for all but the most extreme limits on abortion.

So take heart—hearts and minds are changing. The pro-life side is winning. The numbers don’t lie.

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