The Polling Company has released a new poll of 1,000 adults conducted on April 13 and 14. The poll was commissioned by “Real Women’s Voices,” a project sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony List and other pro-life groups.
Among the findings:
1) Given six options–abortion should be illegal, illegal with an exception for the life of the mother, illegal with that exception and an exception for rape and incest, legal for any reason in the first trimester, legal for any reason in the first and second trimester, and legal for any reason throughout pregnancy–54 percent choose the three generally pro-life options, and 41 percent the three pro-choice ones. (The full results are 16, 16, 22, 21, 8, and 12. Only 12 percent, that is, support the legal status quo.) The 54-41 result is almost identical to the result of a Wirthlin poll from November 2004 that presented the same options.
2) Young adults (18-34), and especially young women, were more likely than others to choose the pro-life options.
3) While 65 percent of adults considered themselves “familiar” with Roe v. Wade, only 29 percent of adults were able to select the correct description of it from a list of possibilities. Fifty percent thought Roe was much more limited than it was. Even among those with post-graduate degrees, only 38 percent got it right.
If only they’d read the first chapter of The Party of Death. . .