Soccer Dad

Anti-abortion democrats

There's a fascinating article in the NYT about a certain kind of Democrat who are making headway in Republican districts.

The anti-abortion pitch is standard fare in Alabama's Second Congressional District, a deeply conservative area that President Bush carried twice and that has been represented in Washington by a Republican for four decades.

What makes the spot unusual is that Mr. Bright is a Democrat. And that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has been pushing hard for Mr. Bright's election, paid for it.

It's fascinating, but there's more:

Kelli Conlin, the president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, called the recruitment strategy misguided, saying that surveys conducted by her organization showed that even some Republicans express support for abortion rights when her group described the consequences of outlawing the procedure.

"The movement to recruit anti-choice candidates ignores the larger reality that this is a pro-choice nation," she said. "It misses the larger point." (Polls show a divided nation on the issue: A 2008 CNN-Opinion Research poll found that 53 percent of Americans characterized themselves as "pro-choice," versus 44 as "pro-life;" a 2007 poll by the same organization showed the numbers reversed, 45-50.)

This isn't quite right. Well yes a majority of the nation is pro-choice, but that doesn't necessarily mean what the National Institute for Reproductive Health or Planned Parenthood or NARAL claims that it means.

If you looked at polling you'd see that American's largely do not believe that abortion with no limits is a good idea. Here's a summary of Gallup's polling on the topic.

The most controversial aspect of the abortion issue for Americans is abortion in the first trimester. "Pro-life" Americans widely denounce this, while "pro-choice" Americans widely support it. Both sides agree abortion should generally be illegal in the later stages of pregnancy.

Though this summary doesn't have it, the numbers I've usually seen have about 60% of the population objecting to second trimester abortions and over 80% objecting to third trimester abortions. When the subject is "partial-birth" aboriton, though, the rate of opposition is even higher.

It's funny that when second and third trimester abortions are reported on, you rarely see them modified as "extremely unpopular." That's reserved for the war in Iraq.

In fact one thing that you'll notice about polls is that they only get reported if they support the view of the reporter or news service. (You only read about public support of the death penalty when there's some indication of decline.)

The presence of pro-life Democrats is a reflection of the popular belief that the right to abortion should not be unfettered and that some reasonable limits are called for.

via memeorandum