America is Mostly Pro-Life, But That’s Old News

A new Gallup Poll released says that, since Gallup began asking the question, a majority of Americans identify themselves as “pro-life.” Well, I hate to break it to Gallup but America has been pro-life long before now – many just didn’t call themselves “pro-life.” We can see this when we start breaking down the numbers within the poll when the pollsters asked when abortion should be legal/illegal.

22% of the people surveyed said abortion should be legal under any circumstance. These are the people who are truly “pro-choice” (that is, pro-abortion). They believe a woman should have unrestricted access to an abortion for any reason she chooses. To them, abortion can be used simply for birth control. It’s an extreme position but it is to this minority that the Democrat Party caters.

Another small group (15%) believes abortion should be legal under most circumstances. Perhaps they could also be considered “pro-choice” (that is, pro-abortion) but they at least recognize that some abortions are extreme (perhaps things like late term or partial birth abortions). Yet even when combined with the group above both of these groups amount to only 37% of the population.

On the other hand, 60% of the people surveyed believed abortion should be illegal in all circumstances or legal only in a few (probably in cases of rape or incest). So, by a margin of nearly 2 to 1, Americans hold to pro-life values even if they don’t identify themselves as such.

The real surprise to me in the poll was that the number of Christians who identified themselves as pro-life was only 59%! I know that liberalism has worked its way into many mainstream denominations but this number should be 100%. For Christians, there should be no doubt where we should stand on this issue. Now I know there are some Christians out there who would say, “I am personally opposed abortion but I believe women should have the right to choose an abortion.” However, this lame defense is as sophomoric as saying, “I’m personally opposed to slavery but I believe people should have the right to choose to own slaves.” If something is wrong then it’s wrong and we shouldn’t tolerate an abomination like abortion under the guise of liberty.

Getting back to the poll for a moment, I believe this poll also spells doom for the radical left in Washington. Folks like Obama and Pelosi are governing like they have a mandate. I’m sure we all remember that Obama ran a campaign promising “change.” That’s a rather ambiguous slogan and I’m sure his abortion agenda is not the kind of change people had in mind. Obama has said that women “should not be punished with a baby” and, to that end, has promised to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. He has already lifted the ban on Federal funding of abortions so our tax dollars are now going to pay for abortions around the world.

Many people are not single issue voters but abortion is one of those issues that people are passionate about. The numbers speak for themselves. The more Obama and the extreme-left go down this road, the more they are going to alienate a majority of Americans. You can only be in-your-face about the issue for so long before people react. Let’s not wait until 2012; let’s start by getting the liberals out of Congress next year!