Winning the War for Babies

By Heather Mathews for PPSIMMONS         


 A Gallup Poll published yesterday¹ has renewed hope that people are indeed listening to the pro-life message and are waking up to the fact that babies in utero are, in fact, living human beings and not just a “soulless clump of cells.”  The decline in pro-choice views is seen across the major partisan groups, with an overall decline in the last year from 49 to 41%, and a jump from 45 to 50% identifying as pro-life.

Since last May, Republicans have gained four percentage points among pro-lifers, from 68% to 72%, where pro-choicers have lost 6% (28 to 22 %.)  Among Democrats, pro-life proponents increased from 27 to 34%, and pro-choicers dropped from 68 to 58% in the same period.  Also, Independents who self-identify as pro-life increased from 41 to 47%, and pro-choice supporters dropped from 51 to 41%.  Overall, Americans’ fundamental views on the morality and legality of abortion have held relatively steady, per the corresponding graph.

Personally, I think that last point made by the Gallup organization is misleading.  How can such a large percentage of Americans change their views on whether they are pro-life or pro-choice, yet have no change in their views of the morality of abortion (legality aside)?

Just over half of all respondents answered that abortion should be legal in certain circumstances, holding relatively steady for the last twelve years.  A quarter believe it should be legal in all circumstances, and 20% believe it should be illegal in all cases.

One can only speculate as to exactly why there is such a change of heart in America… could it be the distribution and viewing of media such as the “180” movie², or the Abort73 website³?  Is it the recent congressional wrangling over federal funding for Planned Parenthood and investigation of their practices?  Is the conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the Obama Administration⁴ that has captured their attention and caused them to question their own views and values?  Or perhaps the Lord has tugged at the hearts and minds of the people and convicted them:  we can only hope and pray that this is the case.  Regardless, it is encouraging to see that so many people are finally realizing that using sin to cover sin is never the answer.

¹ http://www.gallup.com/poll/154838/Pro-Choice-Americans-Record-Low.aspx

² http://180movie.com/

³ http://www.abort73.com/

⁴ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9283507/Roman-Catholic-church-in-the-US-launches-legal-assault-on-Barack-Obamas-health-reforms.html