Another in a series of surveys checking the American attitude on abortion is showing that, for the first time in more than 10 years, most people say they are pro-life, not pro-choice.
The results of a Gallup Poll released Friday show that most Americans when asked labeled themselves pro-life, not pro-choice, by a 51 percent to 42 percent margin.
Those numbers aren't statistically overwhelming, but given the emotional charge of the continuing national debate on abortion — not to mention a seat to fill on the U.S. Supreme Court that first made abortion legal in 1973 — the issue seems to be getting pushed into the spotlight again.
That's as good a guess as any, state Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, said Friday when asked to assess the apparent shift in attitude shown by Gallup.
"I can't say or know for sure, but I think it reflects a shift that's real, not just a statistical blip that comes from people taking stock of the increased public discussion about abortion and really looking at their values personally," Ray said.
Ray and other pro-life lawmakers contacted for a response to the poll said its results, while positive to the ongoing effort to make most abortions illegal again, it doesn't motivate them to draft new legislation to that end.
"At this point we've done about all we can do, short of a Supreme Court decision or states getting authority to decide the issue at that level — where the decision ought to be," Ray said.
Along with Ray's bill (HB90) making post-20 week abortions a second-degree felony homicide this past session, lawmakers also approved a bill (HB222) that requires physicians to advise a mother that an abortion causes fetal pain and anesthesia is available. They also approved HB114, the establishment of a public fund for private donors to help pay for legal costs when the issue ends up in court again.
Ray and other lawmakers said poll results, no matter the source, are interesting but don't hold sway in their effort to have the procedure made illegal except for extenuating circumstances such as the immediate physical health risk of the mother or child.
Those rooted in the pro-choice side of the debate said polls are interesting but won't influence the course of their effort, either.
Pro-lifers from the Eagle Forum to pro-choicers including a physician who has performed the procedure said the issue has become such a political football, how it bounces from one day to the next, from one poll to the next won't facilitate a resolution nor increase reasonable debate toward getting one.
Karrie Galloway, CEO of Planned Parenthood Utah, considers the Gallup results like those in April that found the opposite — no reason to change what they're doing.
"Polling just presses this hot button and ultimately adds more evidence that it's one hardy perennial," Galloway said, noting that surveys, no matter who does them, are almost always more interesting than instructive.
CNN and Pew have reported results that show almost the identical split as the Gallup poll, with a slim margin of people calling themselves pro-choice.
If results would encourage debate that led both sides to work together on what is really a public health issue, some real progress could be made toward reducing the number of unintended pregnancies, she said.
Both sides have differences over abortion itself, Galloway added, "but the common goal and the overall purpose of my particular professional affiliation and my life's work is to make every pregnancy wanted and every child loved."
People on both sides said Friday that the one thing the results have proved again is that one way or another, they are the product of how the question is asked.
Respondents in the Gallup survey were asked, "With respect to the abortion issue, would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life?"
The ongoing split of opinion seems to be holding, but a higher percentage — 53 percent of the respondents — also said abortion should be legal "under certain circumstances." About 23 percent said that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances and 22 percent said it should be legal under any circumstances.
Gallup pollsters explained the outcome this way: "With the first pro-choice president in eight years already making changes to the nation's policies on funding abortion overseas, expressing his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and moving toward rescinding federal job protections for medical workers who refuse to participate in abortion procedures, Americans — and, in particular, Republicans — seem to be taking a step back from the pro-choice position. However, the retreat is evident among political moderates as well as conservatives.
"It is possible that, through his abortion policies, Obama 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."
On May 13, pollster Nate Silver said that real if real change in public opinion is under way, it's occurring very slowly.
He said there's "decent evidence" that those in Generation Y might be more pro-life than their older counterparts (Gen X and the baby boomers). This is in spite of the fact that young Americans are considerably more liberal than their peers on issues like gay marriage and marijuana legalization, issues on which there is more tangible evidence of "momentum" in favor of the liberal position, Silver wrote. "There are evidently an increasing number of pro-life, pro-gay marriage Americans, particularly among Generation Y'ers, a position it would have been very unusual to encounter just a few years ago."