When it comes to abortion, the vast majority of Americans know what they want and what they want isn\u2019t going to please Planned Parenthood or the Vatican. <\/p>\n
What they want is compromise. What they want are shades of gray.<\/p>\n
In a new Harris Interactive survey, only 9 percent participants agreed that the abortion should be legal for any reason at any point during a pregnancy. On the other side, only 11 percent wanted a total ban.<\/p>\n
In between were plenty of citizens who back legalized abortion but, to one degree or another, want to see restrictions. The sponsors of the national survey were amazed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain opposed to abortion, which means we oppose any procedure that seeks to destroy the life of an unborn child. That isn\u2019t going to change,\u201d said Deidre McQuade, speaking for the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. \u201cBut what we are seeing is growing evidence that most Americans do want to see abortion restricted and limited.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why the USCCB is hailing these results, even though most of the numbers point toward compromises that fall short of the teachings of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n
Looking at the extremes, the survey asked if abortion should be \u201cillegal in all circumstances\u201d or \u201clegal for any reason at any time during pregnancy.\u201d But in between, participants could say that abortion should remain legal to \u201csave the life of the mother\u201d or legal in cases involving rape or incest. They could also say that abortion should be legal \u201cfor any reason\u201d during the first three months or the first six months\u201d of pregnancy.<\/p>\n
In addition to the 11 percent who wanted a total ban, 38 percent backed efforts to restrict abortion to cases of rape, incest or a threat to the mother\u2019s life. Another 33 percent endorsed limiting abortion to the first three or six months of pregnancy.<\/p>\n
When asked if they opposed or supported specific policies restricting abortion, 88 percent of those who stated opinions backed \u201cinformed consent\u201d laws requiring abortion providers to \u201cinform women of potential risks to their physical and psychological health and about alternatives to abortion.\u201d Also, 76 percent of those expressing opinions favored laws that \u201cprotect doctors and nurses from being forced to perform or refer for abortions against their will\u201d and 73 supported laws that \u201crequire giving parents the chance to be involved in their minor daughter\u2019s abortion decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
These numbers resemble those in a 2006 survey on politics, faith and social issues produced by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. It found that \u201cmajorities of Republicans (62%), Democrats (70%) and political independents (66%)\u201d favored some form of compromise on abortion, as did more than 60 percent of both white evangelicals and white, non-Hispanic Catholics.<\/p>\n
Digging deeper, that Pew survey even found that 37 percent of liberal Democrats and 71 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats supported some compromise, backing abortion restrictions that would not be allowed under current interpretations of Roe v. Wade and other U.S. Supreme Court decisions.<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s hard to seek middle ground in an era in which both major political parties have been defined by strict, black-and-white stances on this life-and-death issue.<\/p>\n
Tensions will also rise if President-elect Barack Obama keeps a campaign pledge he made on July 17, 2007, when he told Planned Parenthood leaders: \u201cThe first thing I\u2019d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.\u201d Obama is a co-sponsor of this bill, which, according to the National Organization for Women, would \u201csweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws (and) policies\u201d that are already in effect.<\/p>\n
In response, abortion opponents will argue that there is broad support in the middle of the political landscape for policies that restrict an absolute right to abortion, including laws that are on the books and others that have been proposed by many Republicans and some Democrats.<\/p>\n
This can be seen in the new Harris survey data, said McQuade, and in other polls in recent years \u2014 especially those charting the beliefs of young Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is political capital there and we must stress that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will have to seek the changes that we can make, while being realistic. We will also have to defend the laws that we already have that protect the right to life. This issue will not go away.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When it comes to abortion, the vast majority of Americans know what they want and what they want isn\u2019t going to please Planned Parenthood or the Vatican. What they want is compromise. What they want are shades of gray. In a new Harris Interactive survey, only 9 percent participants agreed that the abortion should be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[37,1532,1534,526,1544],"class_list":["post-1544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","tag-abortion","tag-catholics","tag-evangelicals","tag-mainline-protestantism","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n