1. Could Pro-Life Education and Activism BE bringing down abortion numbers?
Pro-life people, following the lead of Pope John Paul II, often say that we must foster “a culture of life.” It is not often clear what this means in practice, but the end result would be a society in which every human life is valued and protected, from conception to natural death.
We have had close to 50 years to do this. How would we measure our success? A change in public opinion on abortion perhaps would be the best sign that Christian teaching on the sanctity of life was having an effect. There is, however, no evidence that this is happening.
Polls on abortion are notoriously unreliable. The wording of questions often skews results. Many people have opinions, and often strong opinions, about abortion, but their views can be self-contradictory, ignorance is widespread, and disinterest in the subject is the norm. We are told every few years that “the younger generation is more pro-life than in the past.” And that, according to Gallup, only 33 percent of Americans in 1995 identified as “pro-life,” but in 2019, 49 percent said that they were “pro-life.”[1] How deep and durable is this self-identification?
Perhaps the most reliable guide to public opinion on the subject is the General Social Survey, a national sample survey of between 1,500 to 2,000 adults, conducted almost every year by the National Opinion Research Center and the University of Chicago. From 1977 to 2018, the surveyors have asked the question whether a pregnant woman should be able to obtain a legal abortion if she wants it for any reason. There is no sign that the pro-life view is prevailing here.[2]
We have had close to 50 years to do this. How would we measure our success? A change in public opinion on abortion perhaps would be the best sign that Christian teaching on the sanctity of life was having an effect. There is, however, no evidence that this is happening.
Polls on abortion are notoriously unreliable. The wording of questions often skews results. Many people have opinions, and often strong opinions, about abortion, but their views can be self-contradictory, ignorance is widespread, and disinterest in the subject is the norm. We are told every few years that “the younger generation is more pro-life than in the past.” And that, according to Gallup, only 33 percent of Americans in 1995 identified as “pro-life,” but in 2019, 49 percent said that they were “pro-life.”[1] How deep and durable is this self-identification?
Perhaps the most reliable guide to public opinion on the subject is the General Social Survey, a national sample survey of between 1,500 to 2,000 adults, conducted almost every year by the National Opinion Research Center and the University of Chicago. From 1977 to 2018, the surveyors have asked the question whether a pregnant woman should be able to obtain a legal abortion if she wants it for any reason. There is no sign that the pro-life view is prevailing here.[2]
The same is true for the other questions, such as whether a woman should be able to have an abortion because she was raped, or because she feels she has too many children.
Other polling organizations have found the same thing. For example, the Pew Research Center says, “As of 2019, public support for legal abortion remains as high as it has been in two decades of polling. Currently, 61% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 38% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.”[3] Pollsters have found a deep ambivalence in the public as a whole: One pollster concluded, “Substantial numbers of people tell the pollsters that abortion is an act of murder. They also say that the decision to have an abortion should be a personal choice.”[4]
Could pro-life education or activism have been making women more pro-life before they became pregnant? Public opinion polls give us no reason to think so. The good news is, to reduce abortions now, we don’t have to change public opinion. We are winning where it counts: the ratios of abortions to birth continue to fall. Local pregnancy medical centers are key, and advertising these centers makes those ratios fall faster.
[1] https://www.christianpost.com/voices/the-real-story-behind-us-abortion-decline.html
[2] https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/607/vshow
[3] https://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/
[4] “Attitudes About Abortion,” compiled by Karlyn Bowman and Heather Sims, AEI Public Opinion Studies, January 2017, www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ABORTION.pdf, p. 3.
Could pro-life education or activism have been making women more pro-life before they became pregnant? Public opinion polls give us no reason to think so. The good news is, to reduce abortions now, we don’t have to change public opinion. We are winning where it counts: the ratios of abortions to birth continue to fall. Local pregnancy medical centers are key, and advertising these centers makes those ratios fall faster.
[1] https://www.christianpost.com/voices/the-real-story-behind-us-abortion-decline.html
[2] https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/607/vshow
[3] https://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/
[4] “Attitudes About Abortion,” compiled by Karlyn Bowman and Heather Sims, AEI Public Opinion Studies, January 2017, www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ABORTION.pdf, p. 3.