Last month Washington Post columnist Katrina vanden Heuvel derided Republicans in Congress for treating women like children. Their crime: passing legislation to ban abortions after 20 weeks. The legislation, The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, passed 228-196 in the House but has little chance of going anywhere in the Senate.

In her snarky paean to science, rational thinking, and poor women, she cited a poll showing that 7 of 10 Americans support Roe v. Wade. That is a convenient truth if there ever was one. Contrary to her argument, most Americans do not view abortion the same way at the beginning of a pregnancy as they do at the middle and end.

As a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll reveals, a plurality of Americans support late-term abortion bans like the one just passed in Texas. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal: “In the new survey of 1,000 Americans, 44% said they would support a ban in their state on abortions 20 weeks postfertilization, compared with 37% who would oppose such a ban.”

More interesting to me is this:

The Journal/NBC poll showed a complexity of views on the bans. More women than men supported the state bans, 46% to 40%. Even college-educated women, a group that strongly supports abortion rights, tipped toward favoring the 20-week restrictions. Among that group, 62% said abortion should be legal, but only 40% opposed the 20-week bans, compared with 44% who backed a ban at 20 weeks.

Apparently there are more of the “anti-woman” women vanden Heuvel  targets out there than pro-woman women! I hope she addresses these numbers in the future. They don’t fit with her hypothesis that rational women march in lock step in favor of abortion on demand, however. But to make an intellectually honest argument in favor of abortion in the future she must.