Today, Jan. 20, the famous and massive March for Life happens in Washington, D.C., as it has for decades. And a January Marist poll, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, shows that most Americans are pro-life. In fact, more than two-thirds, or 69%, of Americans, including 72% (about three-fourths) of women and 49% of Democrats, believe abortion should be banned no later than the first trimester. While some of us might look forward to a majority of Americans condemning abortion as ending an innocent human life altogether, Americans overall are still largely anti-abortion.
This gives the lie to the claim that Republicans’ pro-life platform cost them the 2022 election.
LifeNews broke down the poll, noting that 44% of Americans even support increased restrictions on abortion, including 8% who want no abortion for any reason. Only one in five U.S. voters support abortion without restriction at any point in pregnancy. When Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 26), which required that babies born after failed abortion receive medical care, they were not representing the American people overall.
A significant majority of registered Democrats (88%) do identify as “pro-choice,” however, though that does not necessarily mean abortion on demand. College education and religion play important roles in making people pro-life or pro-abortion, LifeNews explained: “Those who practice a religion oppose abortion 61% to 39%, while the irreligious describe themselves as pro-choice by a margin of 70% to 21%.”
The only religion the Marist poll broke down in more detail was Catholicism. “Two-thirds of practicing Roman Catholics oppose abortion (67% to 33%), while non-practicing Catholics describe their views as pro-choice 83% to 17%… The groups most likely to identify as ‘pro-choice’ included registered Democrats (88%), non-practicing Catholics (83%), and college-educated white people (72%).” College might not educate much nowadays, but it does make people woke.
Unsurprisingly as well, rural U.S. voters are twice as likely (62%) to oppose abortion as urban dwellers (31%). More white Americans (42%) consider themselves “pro-life” than non-white Americans (34%).
A WPA Intelligence poll that came out at the same time as the Marist poll, which showed “60% of self-described pro-choice likely voters in Virginia supported a bill that protects unborn babies from abortion after 15 weeks.” Pro-choice doesn’t always mean what Democrat politicians say it means.
The Marist poll also found:
78% of Americans oppose forcing taxpayers to fund abortion overseas;
60% of Americans oppose forcing taxpayers to fund abortion in the United States;
94% oppose sex-selective abortions (because of the child’s sex);
77% say people with religious objections should not be legally required to carry out abortions
60% of Americans oppose aborting a child because the child has been diagnosed with Down syndrome;
55% say employers with religious objections should not be forced to pay for abortion coverage in their employees’ insurance; and
91% of Americans, including 88% of Democrats, support the work of pro-life pregnancy resource centers.
In other words, U.S. voters are ignoring the Democrats’ smear campaigns against pregnancy centers.
But the Marist poll shouldn’t be a shock. As PJ Media’s Matt Margolis noted in December 2021, the Supreme Court upholding the Mississippi anti-abortion law would have been “mainstream.” Margolis cited Gallup: “Six in 10 U.S. adults think abortion should generally be legal in the first months of pregnancy. However, support drops by about half, to 28%, for abortions conducted in the second three months, and by half again, to 13%, in the final three months.” Margolis again cited Gallup in May 2022 to note that while 79% of Americans thought abortion should be legal in certain (50%) or all (29%) circumstances, it was equally true that 70% of Americans supported limits on abortion. Democrats do not acknowledge that nuance when they screech about how Republicans want to confiscate Americans’ beloved right to kill their unborn babies.
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