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The Spectacle Blog
In the aftermath of Rep. Todd Akin’s comments about abortion and “legitimate rape,” as well as the attention given to Rep. Paul Ryan’s “almost no exceptions” opposition to abortion, the idea has resurfaced that opposition to abortion hurts pro-life candidates among women voters. But polls have consistently shown little difference between the abortion views of men and women.
A 2002 Public Agenda poll found that men were two percentage points more likely to believe that “abortion should be generally available” to those who want it (44% to 42%), and that women were slightly more likely to think “abortion should not be permitted” (22% to 21%).
A 2003 ABC/Washington Post poll found 58% of women and 54% of men felt abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances.
More recently, a 2009 CBS News/New York Times poll found that 40% of men and 37% of women felt “abortion should be generally available” while 20% of men and 24% of women felt “abortion should be not permitted.”
A 2012 Gallup poll found women (44%) were more likely than men (38%) to call themselves “pro-choice” and that men (53%) were more likely than women (46%) to call themselves “pro-life.” But Gallup found that from 2001-2008, 48% of men and 49% of women self-identified as “pro-choice.” Between 2009 and 2012, 43% of men and 45% of women identified as “pro-choice.”
According to Gallup, the share of women who thought abortions should be legal under any circumstances varied from 22% to 34% between 1975 and 2009. The share of men who took the same view varied from 21% to 29%.
What about the no exceptions position? The percentage of women who thought abortions should be illegal in all circumstances ranged from 15% to 21%, while the share of men who took the no exceptions pro-life view varied from 13% to 19%. In 2009, 21% of women and 16% of men took the no exceptions position.
Bottom line: Men and women hold very similar views on abortion and under which circumstances it should be available. Women are slightly more likely to hold an absolutist view — either that abortion should be “legal in all circumstances” or “illegal in all circumstances.”
But the real dividing lines are elsewhere. Education, age, religiosity, political affiliation, marital status and even regional differences play a larger role in determining someone’s views on abortion. As a 2010 Gallup survey found, “Educational achievement is much more important than gender in determining support for broadly legal abortion.… This has been the case since the 1970s.”
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More Blog Posts by Daniel Allott
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/08/22/do-men-and-women-view-abortion
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Kingofthenet| 8.22.12 @ 1:51PM
My MAIN reason for COMPLETE freedom of Choice for Women is simple, I don't want the Govt. to EVER have even a slight chance of messing with MY body, so to be consistent I can't allow this for women either. It 'might' be selfish, it might be against the wishes of some Conservative or Religious Women, but I will fight for their rights whether or not they appreciate or even want my help.
JP| 8.22.12 @ 1:55PM
You left out the Freedom for men to mount any female anywhere, anytime without worrying about her getting preggers.
JD| 8.22.12 @ 2:20PM
And I don't want anyone to have the right to murder anyone.
Ryan| 8.22.12 @ 2:57PM
You're dealing with a different paradigm. For the pro-life movement, the life of a person comes before the convenience of another for innocent, unborn children.
Occam's Tool| 8.22.12 @ 7:23PM
And yet, King, you support ObamaCare. Socialized medicine has led to rationing in every country in which it has been tried. Wait until you need a surgery for an excrutiating, "elective" condition, like, say, back surgery. Thanks to NZ's NHS, my wife was an invalid for a year for a condition that Mayo fixed within 2 months of their first evaluation.
You have no clue, clownish man.
JP| 8.22.12 @ 1:53PM
If one considers that in NYC there are more abortions each year than live births, politics has something to do with it. But what comes first: the person's moral beliefs or thier politics? A man or a woman living in Ditchweed South Dakota will more than likely have a different take than a couple in Long Island New York. But, then again a couple who teaches at a Junior College in Gulleywash Iowa probably agrees with a couple who lives in Palo Alto.
But, not to let men off the hook. Men are the ultimate beneficiaries of abortion. Whether they are boyfriends, husbands,or the occaisonal 30 year old teacher who "dates" one his 15 year old students, men get more benefit than do women. One of the greatest cons of the 20th Century was to get femnists to make abortion thie only issue. issue.
JD| 8.22.12 @ 2:23PM
This article shows that the Democrats' "war on women" lie is working. The men are less willing to take the all-or-nothing positions for fear of being called sexist.
Reality is, the only reason anyone opposes abortion is the belief in the personhood of the victim, and such a belief makes "exceptions" ludicrous. Either "extreme" is a more sensible position than the muddy middle.
Skippy| 8.22.12 @ 4:22PM
Women support abortion out of fear that some scumbag man will abandon her and her child, or that her party days are over.
Men support abortion because men are lazy scum and will skate until forced to straighten up.
Everyone who supports abortion willfully shuts the humanity of the child out of their minds.
The lie they live always sneaks back up to make them miserable.
Occam's Tool| 8.22.12 @ 7:30PM
The purpose for marriage is to sublimate the enbergy from men's sexual urges into supporting his wife, children, and society in general. The purpose of not allowing abortions is to force men into marriage or supporting children if they have sex---again, forcing men to sublimate their sexual urges into responsibility for their offspring.
Can we say that children and marriages and women are better off since Roe V. wade? Statistics showing a lower percentage of women with children married, a higher poverty rate for women with children, and more child abuse and poverty, PARTICULARLY in Minority Communities, DOES not back this assertion. "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" was a brilliantly prophetic poem. Kipling wrote a lot of prophetic, and even science fictional, work.
Of course, if one's purpose is to pauperize Black women and kill their children, a purpose which would have suited the late Robert Byrd down to a "T," the the Liberal approach is working just fine.
Mess with societal controls at one's peril, folks.
Occam's Tool| 8.22.12 @ 7:32PM
Obviously, "Wade" should be capitalized. Otherwise, OK.
I support Civil Unions for gays, giving them legal rights that one would give spouse, but I do NOT support Gay Marriage. The reasons are outlined above.
Occam's Tool| 8.22.12 @ 7:32PM
That should be "spouses" above, huh.