One of the biggest planks in the Democrat platform has been unlimited access to abortion; the Democrats have held that position for decades now. By contrast, Republican platforms have generally been pro-life in orientation. Of course, none of this made much difference since the right to abortion was made clear in Roe v. Wade forty years ago, and absent a constitutional amendment, that will not change.
Gallup is out with a new poll, however, that makes clear that perceptions are changing on this issue. Right now, 50% of Americans call themselves pro-life with only 41% who self-describe as pro-choice. The majority for pro-life is a recent developmnet. For many years after Roe v. Wade, the pro-choice position had a large lead (about 20%). Over the last 15 years, however, the difference between the two positions grew narrow and now pro-life has the largest lead ever. Pro-choice is at the lowest ever measured.
The biggest news out of the Gallup survey, however, is not the size of these two camps. Instead, it is the continued belief by Americans that limitations on abortion are proper. Fully 72% of the population support limiting abortion in either all or some cases. Only 25% of the folks think that unlimited rights to abortion are proper.
As the umpteenth article gets written about the inevitable decline of the Republicans due to demographic changes, perhaps it is time for someone to write about those issues where the people are moving strongly towards the Republican viewpoint. But, hey, that might be looked at as actually being balanced, and we could never expect that from the media.
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