Debunking the stereotypes about abortion
By Dave Andrusko
Among
the many articles this month that I wanted to comment on but time did
not allow was a piece that ran January 2 in the New York Times under the
headline “The Abortion Stereotype.” When three letters to the editor
appeared about it today, that was a heads-up to get back to Razib
Khanjan’s op-ed.There is very little in Mr. Rhanjan’s commentary that would surprise pro-lifers. But—remember—this appears in the unofficial flagship publication of the Abortion Establishment. There are some good points but a few clunkers as well.
For example, referring to the stereotype that women are more pro-abortion than men are, it’s important that the Times’ readers know
The polling confounds such
stereotypes. The General Social Survey, which has been tracking American
opinions for decades, includes the question of whether a woman should
be allowed to get an abortion if she “wants it for any reason.” In 17 of
the 23 years that this question has been asked, men have answered “yes”
to a greater extent than women. The average difference was about 1.5
percentage points — a small but consistent gender gap, if not the one
people seem to expect.
He digs deeper
While, on the whole, there isn’t a
major difference in the sexes’ attitudes toward abortion, there is one
when we separate men and women by ideology. If we look at the data since
2000 (to get a more contemporary perspective), on the liberal end of
the ideological spectrum men are consistently less supportive of
abortion on demand than women. On the conservative end of the spectrum,
it’s women who like abortion on demand less than men do.
In other words, conservative
women are the most anti-abortion segment of the population, and liberal
women are the most in favor of abortion rights. You might say that the
more significant difference here is not between men and women, but among
women.
There are many qualifications even to this generalization.
So, yes, there is a large gap
between these ideologically polarized positions [“extremely liberal”
women and “extremely conservative” women], but we miss a substantial
proportion of the electorate if all we apprehend is the stylized
cartoon. Nuance goes out the window when slogans about the “war on
women” or the “liberal media” dominate public discourse. …
A greater engagement with the
facts would enable those who support abortion rights to consider why so
many women do not, rather than dismissing their political opponents as
motivated by misogyny or false consciousness.
So Khanjan got the hype about the ‘war on women’ correct but chooses (perhaps to appear “balanced”) to ignore that the war on women meme would never have achieved liftoff without most of the major media treating it as if it was spot on, rather than bogus from start to finish. In fact, of course, the real war on women is sex-selection abortion which pro-abortion feminists refuse to do anything about.
Second—and I am not blaming Khanjan for not addressing it—is that members of the younger generations (male and female) are so very pro-life. We’ve run many stories in NRL News Today and NRL News demonstrating how this true, both as measured by public opinion polls and activism.
I’m going to re-post an article that I wrote way back in 2006—“More Data Showing That Young People Are Pro-Life.” While it’s older, nothing has changed, including the way the analyst of the poll taken of students at Hamilton College tries to wiggle out of the conclusion, or at least diminish the impact. I was reminded of that post because the Senior Director of Media Relations for Hamilton College wrote one of the letters to the editor.
There is going to be many, many stories posted today. Please read them all and pass them on via social media.
Please also read “More Data Showing That Young People Are Pro-Life“
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