According to a YouGov/Americans United for Life joint survey conducted last week, even 66% of those who consider themselves “pro-choice” oppose third-trimester abortions. YouGov is a popular non-partisan polling firm, and Americans United for Life describes itself as America’s first pro-life organization. YouGov and Americans United for Life surveyed 1,145 American adults, overall.
Other notable findings from the survery include:
- 80% of Americans reject abortion the day before a child is born, 79% of Americans reject abortion in the third trimester, and 82% of Americans reject removing medical care for a viable child post-birth;
- 68% of “pro-choice” Americans oppose abortion the day before a child is born;
- 66% of “pro-choice” Americans oppose abortion in the third trimester;
- 77% of “pro-choice” Americans oppose removing medical care for a viable child; and
- 53% of Americans identify as “pro-choice” and 47% of Americans identify as “pro-life.”
The survey provides ammunition for those who have criticized the recent spate of late-term abortion legislation across numerous state legislatures as extreme and out of touch with most Americans — including even most self-described “pro-choice”-ers.
Americans United for Life President and CEO Catherine Glenn Foster issued this statement, in response to the survey:
“This survey vividly reveals both the American people’s common-sense appreciation for the sanctity of life and the widespread horror, even among self-identified pro-choice Americans, of new laws like New York’s that effectively allow abortion up until the moment of delivery. Planned Parenthood and elected officials like Governor [Andrew] Cuomo who support abortions up to the point of birth are out of step with not only their supposed core constituents, but also our country’s essential tenets of life, liberty, and the opportunity to pursue happiness. It is our hope that the critical information brought to light here will advance the democratic process by inspiring more Americans to hold their representatives and public institutions to account.”
As The Daily Wire has reported, late-term abortion legislation has recently been a hot topic in New York, Virginia, and Rhode Island. Under the terms of New York’s passed and enacted Reproductive Health Act, The Daily Wire has reported that, “So long as a licensed practitioner acts in ‘good faith,’ a baby can be murdered in the womb up to birth in order ‘to protect the patient’s life or health,'” but “the meaning of the word ‘health’ is not defined within the legislation.” Virginia’s bill, arguably even more clarion in its clearing the way for abortions up through the moment of birth — and perhaps even after birth — had the indirect effect of cascading an indirect series of statewide governmental officials’ scandal revelations, ranging from the Governor to the Lieutenant Goveror to the Attorney General.
As Ramesh Ponnuru recently wrote for National Review, one paradoxical truth of the recent spate of late-term abortion legislation transfixing state legislative chambers is how little these bills actually alter the prevailing status quo under the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence:
Supporters of that jurisprudence are worried that the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court will retreat from it, either overruling Roe and its successors to declare that the Constitution does not protect abortion or allowing prohibitions late in pregnancy. That’s why states dominated by Democrats are moving to place liberal abortion regimes into their statute books. Even if Roe disappears, late-term abortion will still be legal in New York, thanks to its new law. Existing law in Virginia is already permissive, as it is throughout the country; [Kathy] Tran’s bill only modestly relaxed the regulations on late-term abortion. Her initial description of the legislation was accurate, and it serves equally well as a description of both Virginia law and constitutional law nationwide today.