Gallup Poll Shows Exciting New Trend to Pro-Life Position on Abortion

Americans are now proud to call themselves pro-life — and that is a good thing. A Gallup poll conducted May 7-10 and released today finds 51% of Americans self-label as “pro-life” on abortion and 42% as “pro-choice.” According to Gallup, just one year ago, 44% self-labeled as “pro-life” and 50% as “pro-choice.”

Gallup observed that this is the first time in decades of polling that this shift has been recorded. The significance of the attitude change is that the success of those who support abortion in branding the word ‘choice’ as the favored position is now reversed.

The label question is the softest attitude question that can be asked on abortion since it is subjective. When probing beyond the label question, some people claim to be “pro-life” but support abortion in the first three months of pregnancy. The Gallup poll also found a significant decline in those who believe abortion should be legal in all circumstances, a more significant measure than the label question because it depicts real positions on when abortion should be legal or illegal.

The reasons for this attitude shift are many. Wisconsin Right to Life has engaged in an attitude-changing advertising campaign over the past 12 years. No one with any degree of intelligence or integrity would argue at this time that the baby in the womb is just a blob of tissue, given the wide range of technical ability to view and even treat the baby in the womb.

Late-term abortions, especially partial-birth abortions, are viewed as abhorrent by Americans. Younger people are far more pro-life than preceding generations. Abortion, with its high repeat rates and damage to women, has lost its luster as a panacea for curing society’s social ills.

America has turned a new corner and it is gratifying to know that we have come home. Come home to recognize that as a people, it is our duty and responsibility to protect the baby in the womb — the most vulnerable member of the human family.

Read the Gallup Poll here.

Barbara Lyons