Change in America

Last year we had a national debate on race, noisy and contentious at times but progressive nonetheless. This year, we’re having one about abortion. Both were generated, somehow, by Barack Obama. He campaigned on change, and (Congressional politics notwithstanding) we got it.

For the first time since Roe v. Wade, a majority of Americans declare themselves to be pro-life. American Spectator crunches the numbers.

Amidst the political setbacks for the right-to-life movement, maybe the worst since the 1970s, the Gallup Poll reports that 51 percent of Americans call themselves “pro-life” on the issue of abortion; 42 percent are “pro-choice.”

“This is the first time a majority of adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995,” says Lydia Saad, writing for the Gallup organization on its website…

Time’s Nancy Gibbs analyzes this ground shift.

Most people are neither pro-choice nor pro-life, but both; we cherish life, we value choice, and we trade them off with great reluctance. Good luck explaining that to someone who is politely requesting a binary answer over the phone.

But if we place any stock at all in those labels, something dramatic has happened.

Again and again in news stories, folks in the middle (what one friend calls ‘the radical middle’) are making the difference. They’re moving. And engaging.

A new Pew poll finds that while a majority of independents said abortion should be legal in most cases as recently as October, just 44% do so now. This may inspire some introspection on the part of political operatives in both parties who attribute the Republicans’ present frailty to its orthodoxy on social issues. The GOP may have fielded some hapless messengers, but their message, on abortion at least, may be closer to the mainstream than Democrats care to acknowledge.

I think the numbers, inadequate and simplified though they may be, reflect deeper changes…

That American Spectator piece makes some suggestions.

What is the reason for the change in these polling numbers?  Saad speculates that it is possible that President Obama, “through his abortion policies…has pushed the public’s understanding of what it means to be ‘pro-choice’ slightly to the left, politically.”

“While Democrats may support that, as they generally support everything Obama is doing as president, it may be driving others in the opposite direction.”

Whatever the reasons…

…it is bracing to see the majority of Americans opting for the culture of life during these unsettled times.

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  • Obama has brought the topic front and center. But I think there is more. The movement’s leaders seem to be taking a different approach. They are less polarizing and more engaging. By this I mean that they are being less argumentative as they provide more legitimate moral reasons why abortion is the tragedy of all alternatives. They are starting to speak about the result of abortion on society and the women themselves. They are starting to understand that changing hearts and minds will cause less abortions in the short run and gain more laws in the long run, actions that can only be realized through legimate engagement and not through the tactics of polarization. Moreover I see a real shift in the direction of Fr. Frank Pavone and others. People think presidents should be the moral leaders. If that were true there would need be no role for our religious leaders. The real moral leaders are people like Fr. Frank Pavone, and I think he and others should see this polling trend as the first fruits of their work. Engagement and discussion is what president Obama called for in his speech at Notre Dame. We should not fear or flee the exchange of ideas on this topic. We have the moral high ground. Our tactics should reflect this moral high ground as well. Fr. Frank Pavone is an ambassador of the pro-life movement as he is an ambassador of Christ. He is now acting and speaking as an ambassador, and so should we all.

    “Understand I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away…Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with opposing views to caricatures. Open Hearts. Open minds. Fair minded words.”

  • I wish the Gallup poll expanded its questioning a bit to ask how many of the people who describe themselves as pro-life also are OK with the use of contraception. One of the reasons why self-proclaimed views on abortion may be changing is that women and men are more educated about the various means of planning when to have kids — abortion is much more amenable as a choice when family planning options and education are limited. But, when technology and education present families with a wealth of options in terms of planning a pregnancy, the need/desire/expectation of abortion becomes less important, and a choice to be “pro-life” becomes more common.

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