Subject: Media Ignores Polls Showing Pro-Life Majorities
Source: National Review; August 23, 2001

Media Ignores Polls Showing Pro-Life Majorities
By Joel Mowbray

[Pro-Life Infonet Note: Joel Mowbray is a freelance writer.]

For the first time, as many Americans identify themselves as pro-life as
pro-choice, according to a Gallup poll released last week. Just six years
ago, the same poll had a 23-point margin, with 56 percent as pro-choice,
and only 33 percent as pro-life.

In light of the historical polling data and conventional political wisdom
on abortion, this is nothing short of a minor miracle. And yet, even
though the poll has been out for over a week, a search of the New York
Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, and the Associated Press finds nary a
mention of this potentially major shift in popular opinion.

Gallup didn't even issue a press release to generate some buzz about this
intriguing poll result. It was posted on their website, but not on the
front page or any page highlighting their latest polls.

To be perfectly honest, I firmly believe that any single poll must be
taken with a grain of salt. However, the media does not abide by this rule
when a poll result confirms their liberal instincts.

Earlier this summer, a single-digit point-drop in President George W.
Bush's approval rating was given page one treatment by the New York Times.
The Washington Post last week hyped up the fact that Europeans don't much
care for our president, and that piece became fodder for almost every
cable news show. The elite news outlets routinely trot out singular poll
results with pomp and circumstance whenever the findings comfort the
liberal psyche.

Polling on abortion is a tricky business, and one of the least reliable
methods for calculating actual attitudes about abortion is
self-identification. So why is this poll significant_ Because politics is
a sound-bite sport, and most voters perceive a candidate's views based on
his or her labels on the given issues.

The word "choice" is as American as apple pie, and most Americans
instinctively support the concept of choice, regardless of the issue on
the table. In other words, there is typically less real support for
abortion rights than the group of self-identified pro-choicers.

Gallup does ask a somewhat better poll question, with four possible
responses: illegal under any circumstances, legal under only a few, legal
under most, and legal under all circumstances. This is still a bit murky,
because it's not clear what exactly are these referred-to "circumstances."
For a few circumstances, does that just mean to protect the life of the
mother and cases of rape and incest_ Also, there's no time element,
despite the fact that views about abortion change substantially as
discussion moves from first to third trimester.

In that follow-up question, Gallup's new poll found that 60% of
respondents believe abortion should be legal in only a few circumstances,
if at all. Only 38% of those polled chose the latter two categories.

Perhaps the most precise reading of how Americans regard abortion is done
by the polling company. Their poll gives respondents six possible options:
always illegal, legal to save the life of the mother, legal to save the
life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest, legal for any reason
during the first trimester, and legal for any reason in the second or
third trimesters. In June, a plurality of 48% chose one of the first three
pro-life categories, compared to 42% who picked one of the pro-choice
options. This same poll also found 46% self-identified as pro-choice, and
39% as pro-life.

Given that polling conducted earlier this summer unanimously found a
plurality of voters calling themselves pro-choice instead of pro-life, a
good initial instinct is to regard the new Gallup poll as a fluke. But
this past month has hardly been ordinary.

In a deliberate and probing manner, President Bush and the rest of the
nation wrestled with fundamental questions about conception, ensoulment,
and where life begins. In the course of such a lengthy and meaty
discussion, any shift in popular opinion about abortion is only going in
one direction, from pro-choice to pro-life.

People who are pro-life almost universally embrace the view that the
unborn child is a human life. Pro-choicers believe that, at least up until
some point during the pregnancy, the fetus is not a human life. The more
one ponders the very issues involved in embryonic-stem-cell research, the
only possible change in someone's view could be that human life begins
earlier than previously thought.

The Gallup poll could turn out to be just a blip, or it could mark the
start of a bolstered pro-life movement. Either way, it would be nice for
the media to at least pay attention even when they don't like the news.