Feminist Looking Glass

The new Gallup Poll seemingly is bad for liberals like me.  It shows that 40% of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36% call themselves moderate and 20%call themselves liberal.  Gallup says that this is a shift from 2005 through 2008, when moderates were tied with conservatives as the most prevalent group.

It can be argued, as a New York Times blog does, that the same results were not found in other polls.  And intuitively it seems wrong for Gallup to have asked people to describe themselves as being in one of four categories (very conservative, conservative, moderate, and liberal) rather than one of five (very conservative, conservative, moderate, liberal, very liberal).  Conservative columnists have, of course, jumped on these results to justify their politics (see, for example, the always ridiculous and almost-always-wrong William Kristol).  But what the columnists don’t explain is why the Republican Party has been doing so poorly in elections.  The answer, of course, is that the Republican Party has gone so far to the right that it only represents the hard-core right-wingers.

But what I really want to comment on is what the Gallup Poll says about abortion.  It says “The percentage of Americans who consider themselves “pro-life” on abortion rose from 44% in May 2008 to 51% in May 2009, and remained at a slightly elevated 47% in July 2009.”  That statement is linked to its poll on abortion that was published in August.  It says there that:

A mid-July USA Today/Gallup survey finds 47% of Americans calling themselves “pro-life” and 46% “pro-choice.” This is less positive for the “pro-life” position than was true in a Gallup survey in May. However, both 2009 readings show more Americans labeling themselves “pro-life” than has been the case in recent years.

It also says that “pro-life” and “pro-choice” are “Americans’ preferred abortion label[s].”  As I wrote in a previous blog, “pro-life” is not a label that should be used.  Its use is completely misleading since both supporters of a woman’s right to choose and opponents of a woman’s right to choose favor life.  The term’s use exclusively by opponents of a right to choose has to eliminated in order for there to be a fair debate about the issues.

Gallup’s synopsis is about “pro-life” vs. “pro-choice,” but it actually has a better question in its poll.  It asked “Do you think abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?”  That question seems more fair to me.  The results were that 57% think that abortions should be legal under certain circumstances, 21% think they should be legal under any circumstances, and 18% think they should always be illegal.

In my opinion, the only proper way to describe the position that opposes “Pro-Choice” is to call it “Anti-Choice.”  Any time a supporter of a woman’s right to choose hears the term “Pro-Life,” the speaker should be immediately told why its use is incorrect.

Filed under: Abortion Tagged: | Abortion, Gallup Poll, pro-choice, Reproductive Rights