Support for abortion slips … because Obama is pro-choice?

[cali]

By Dave Cook | 10.01.09

Americans are taking a tougher stance on abortion, a new survey finds, perhaps in response to having elected a pro-choice president in Barack Obama.

Since 2008, the share of Americans saying abortion should be legal has declined and public opinion on the issue is now evenly divided, according to a newly released poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & The Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

A nearly even split

Some 45 percent of those surveyed say abortion should be illegal in most cases. That is an increase of 4 points from the previous year. Some 47 percent of the population says abortion should be legal in most cases, down 7 points from 2008. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent.

Pew said one of the largest declines in support for legal abortion occurred among white, non-Hispanic Catholics who attend Mass at least weekly. Support for abortion also fell substantially among Democratic men, but not among Democratic women.

While the survey did not isolate a single cause for the shift in public sentiment, Pew said, “The pattern of changes suggests that the election of a pro-choice Democrat as president may be a contributing factor.”

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/10/01/support-for-abortion-slips-because-obama-is-pro-choice/

[Taverner]

1. Interested to see how the polls are worded

"Do you think doctors who murder helpless defenseless babies should be shot or hung?"

[cali]

3. It's Pew. They simply asked if abortion should be legal in most cases or illegal in most cases

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1212/abortion-gun-control-opinion-gender-gap

[Cant trust em]

2. I feel like abortion has been pretty absent from public debate recently.

I'd be surprised if much shift could be attributed to Obama.

[Taverner]

4. The Antichoice crowd has kept it on the down low lately for a reason:

They are waiting for the boomers to die off, so no one alive remembers what it was like BEFORE abortion was legal.