A ‘Pro-Life’ Majority

Details: 08 June 2012

A new Gallup poll was released recently showing a record-low number of Americans—41 percent—describing themselves as "pro-choice" while 50 percent embraced the "pro-life" label. For perspective, when Gallup first started asking Americans this question in 1995, 56 percent said they considered themselves to be pro-choice and only 33 percent said pro-life.

The public opinion gap between pro-choice and pro-life identifiers fluctuated some over the subsequent 15 years but pro-choice always outpolled pro-life. Then, rather abruptly, public opinion flip-flopped… big time. In 2009, Gallup’s poll showed 51 percent of Americans saying they were pro-life and 42 percent saying pro-choice. The 2012 Gallup poll seems to confirm that "pro-life" may be the new normal.

In past public opinion surveys, a large majority of Americans has consistently opposed most abortions. Only in the rare cases where abortion is sought because of rape, incest or to preserve the mother’s life, do a majority of Americans support it.

Asking Americans if they identify themselves as pro-life or pro-choice is a different sort of question. Rather than measuring how Americans feel about the abortion procedure, this question measures American’s perceptions about the pro-life and pro-choice movements. It is very good news that a majority of Americans now feel more comfortable identifying with the pro-life side.

I read with interest the reactions to this poll by national pro-life leaders. Dorinda Bordlee from the Bioethics Defense Fund said this: "A victory lap is well deserved, even as pro-life advocates pant from exhaustion in trying to hold the line against attempted advances of the Planned Parenthood abortion agenda to infiltrate our private insurance premiums, our health-care system, and even our religious organizations. It seems that this overreach has awakened a sleeping giant."

Pro-life pollster Kellyanne Conway said, "Americans know what they see. The out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality that fueled the abortion-rights movement for decades has been upended by ‘warm the heart’ sonograms and pictures of fetal development and by ‘shock the conscience’ images of dismembered fetuses and the partial-birth abortion procedures."

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List says "As men and women of all ages and political ideologies come to terms with what ‘choice’ actually means, it’s no surprise that they shed the hollow branding. The big ‘Abortion liberates’ lie and those who promulgate it are being unmasked. The other side knows this and admits it has been steadily losing ground with youth."

University of Notre Dame law professor O. Carter Snead explained the public opinion shift this way: "First, advances in biomedical science and biotechnology (including especially in utero imaging technology) have made it impossible to resist the conclusion that the unborn child in the womb is, as a biological matter, a living member of the species Homo sapiens. She is one of us. Given Americans’ widespread intuitive commitment to human equality, it is a very short step to the realization that the failure to extend basic moral regard and legal protections to these immature and vulnerable members of the human family is gravely unjust.

"Additionally, the pro-life movement is overwhelmingly populated by energetic, joyful, and humane people (including a large and growing contingent of young women), who demonstrate compassionate concern not only for the unborn child, but also for the mother facing an unplanned pregnancy, and the woman mourning her abortion. Moreover, alongside their loving witness, defenders of the unborn offer reasoned, sober arguments framed in terms that anyone can grasp, regardless of their ideological or religious commitments."

Professor Snead concludes with these lessons for the future: "Pro-lifers should continue their current course of changing hearts and minds by speaking truth in charity and offering concrete aid to unborn children, their mothers, and women suffering from past abortions. At the same time, the law (which both reflects and teaches) must be brought into alignment with the growing realization that all persons, born or unborn, have immeasurable worth in virtue of who they are as members of the human family."

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.