It would seem both advocates and non-advocates of abortion, " would commit
themselves as pro child support the controversy would become more of a
"nontroversy", centering around personal integrity rather than the straw man
question of when life begins." In my opinion.
Bob Kasprak=====================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Russell <ericprussell@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Uupretirees Yahoogroups <uupretirees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, May 27, 2021 12:50 pm
Subject: [uupretirees] Roe v Wade
#yiv2344185237 P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}No one really loves abortion,
including its advocates. They do, however, understand the social and personal
need for it. If every conception results in a child, the child and adult
poverty rate would rise significantly under current rules. If the people who
classify themselves as pro-life would commit themselves as pro child support
the controversy would become more of a nontroversy, centering around personal
integrity rather than the straw man question of when life begins. Eric
| May 19, 2021 |
| |
| | By David Leonhardt |
| Good morning. With the Supreme Court set to hear a major abortion case, we
look at the state of public opinion. |
| |
| |
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| |
| Supporters and opponents of abortion rights outside the Supreme Court last
year.T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times |
|
|
How abortion views are different
|
| For nearly 50 years, public opinion has had only a limited effect on abortion
policy. The Roe v. Wade decision, which the Supreme Court issued in 1973,
established a constitutional right to abortion in many situations and struck
down restrictions in dozens of states. |
| But now that the court has agreed to hear a case that could lead to the
overturning of Roe, voters and legislators may soon again be determining
abortion laws, state by state. This morning’s newsletter offers a guide to
public opinion on the subject. |
| Americans’ views on abortion are sufficiently complex that both sides in the
debate are able to point to survey data that suggests majority opinion is on
their side — and then to argue that the data friendly to their own side is the
“right” data. These competing claims can be confusing. But when you dig into
the data, you discover there are some clear patterns and objective truths. |
| Here are five. |
|
1. A pro-Roe majority …
|
| Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans — 60 percent to 70
percent, in recent polls by both Gallup and Pew — say they do not want the
Supreme Court to overturn Roe. Similarly, close to 60 percent of Americans say
they favor abortion access in either all or most circumstances, according to
Pew. |
| These are the numbers that abortion rights advocates often emphasize. |
|
2. … and a pro-restriction majority
|
| The most confounding aspect of public opinion is a contradiction between
Americans’ views on Roe itself and their views on specific abortion policies:
Even as most people say they support the ruling, most also say they favor
restrictions that Roe does not permit. |
| Roe, for example, allows only limited restrictions on abortion during the
second trimester, mostly involving a mother’s health. But less than 30 percent
of Americans say that abortion should “generally be legal” in the second
trimester, according to Gallup. Many people also oppose abortion in specific
circumstances — because a fetus has Down syndrome, for example — even during
the first trimester. |
| One sign that many Americans favor significant restrictions is in the Gallup
data. Gallup uses slightly different wording from Pew, creating an option that
allows people to say that abortion should be legal “in only a few”
circumstances. And that is the most popular answer — with 35 percent of
respondents giving it (in addition to the 20 percent who say abortion should be
illegal in all circumstances). |
| This helps explain why many abortion rights advocates are worried that the
Supreme Court will gut Roe without officially overturning it. Yes, the justices
are often influenced by public opinion. |
|
3. Remarkable stability
|
| Opinion on some major political issues has changed substantially over the
last half-century. On taxes and regulation, people’s views have ebbed and
flowed. On some cultural issues — like same-sex marriage and marijuana
legalization — views have moved sharply in one direction. |
| But opinion on abortion has barely budged. Here is Gallup’s four-category
breakdown, going back to 1994: |
|
| |
| By The New York Times | Source: Gallup |
|
| Other survey questions show a similar pattern, with the stability stretching
back to the 1970s, just after the Roe ruling. |
| A key reason is that abortion opinion differs only modestly by age group.
Americans under 30 support abortion rights more strongly than Americans over
50, but the gap is not huge. The age gaps on marijuana legalization, same-sex
marriage and climate change are all larger. |
| Abortion remains a vexing issue for large numbers of Americans in every
generation — which suggests the debate is not likely to be resolved anytime
soon. |
|
4. A modest gender gap …
|
| Gender plays a major role in American politics. Most women voted for Joe
Biden, while most men voted for Donald Trump. On many issues, like gun control
and the minimum wage, there is a large gender gap. |
| But the gap on abortion is not so large. If anything, it seems to be smaller
than the partisan gap. That suggests, perhaps surprisingly, that there are more
Democratic-voting women who favor significant abortion restrictions than
Republican-voting women who favor almost universal access — while the opposite
is true for men. |
| (One note: When people are asked whether they identify as “pro-choice” or
“pro-life,” both the gender and age gaps grow. Those terms appear to prime
people to think as Democrats or Republicans, rather than thinking through the
details of their own policy views.) |
|
| |
| By The New York Times | Source: Pew Research Center |
|
|
5. … and a big class gap
|
| One of the strongest predictors of a person’s view on abortion is educational
attainment, as you can see in the chart above. Working-class Americans often
favor restrictions. Many religiously observant people also favor restrictions. |
| It’s yet another way in which the Democratic coalition is becoming tilted
toward college graduates and the Republican coalition is going in the other
direction. |
|
The bottom line
|
| Both advocates and opponents of abortion access believe the issue is too
important to be decided by public opinion. For advocates, women should have
control over their bodies; after all, no major decision of men’s health is
subject to a veto by politicians or other voters. And for opponents of abortion
access, the life of an unborn child is too important to be subject to almost
any other consideration. |
| If the Supreme Court overrules or substantially weakens Roe, this intense
debate will play out state by state. Many states are likely to restrict
abortion access substantially. |
| For more: Pew’s Jeff Diamant and Aleksandra Sandstrom look at opinion in each
state. And The Upshot looks in detail at how and where laws may change if Roe
falls. |
