A Gallup poll released Monday reveals that the number of Americans who say they are pro-life has risen by two points since last year. A small shift for sure but at least it’s heading in the right direction.
When you factor in the wall-to-wall hyperbolic media frenzy that has happened in the US since Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022, suddenly any movement at all to the pro-life side appears significant.
For the past three years, the pro-life side has been under sustained attack with mainstream media outlets propagating deliberate falsehoods by claiming that women’s lives are in danger following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which sent decision making on abortion back to each individual state. 43% of those surveyed by Gallup identify as “pro-life” (a 2% increase on the previous year), with 51% saying they are “pro-choice” (a 3% drop on the previous year).
Commenting on the results, Charlotte Lozier Institute scholar Michael New said that pro-lifers should take heart from the results, remarking: “The mainstream media spin that there has been a large gain in public support for legal abortion is simply incorrect. Despite an onslaught of negative media coverage about recently enacted pro-life laws, pro-life sentiment has actually remained remarkably durable.”
The survey was based on phone interviews of a random sampling of 1,003 American adults from every state and the District of Columbia from May 1-18. MPs to vote on decriminalising abortion in England and Wales MPs will have a free vote next week when the highly controversial bill to decriminalise
abortion in Britain is voted on in Westminster.
Abortion remains a criminal offence in England and Wales if it takes place after 24 weeks of pregnancy, although there are a number of exceptions to that permitted at present, including allowing abortion up to birth where an unborn baby has a disability of any kind.
If the vote to decriminalise abortion passes, the criminal law would no longer apply in protecting the lives of unborn babies on any grounds, at any stage in pregnancy, including up to and during birth. It would inevitably result in an increased use of the abortion pill and an escalation in late-term abortions, putting the lives and health of women and their babies in serious danger. Without question, it would also lead to more women being coerced and pressured into having an abortion as there would be no explicit deterrents to stop it from happening. Those pushing for the full decriminalisation of abortion appear entirely unfazed by any such concerns.