Recent Pew Survey On Abortion Views 'Presents A Challenge' For Obama, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 14 Oct 2009 - 3:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center "presents a challenge" for President Obama and the Democratic Party because it shows "Americans are now evenly split on the issue" of abortion rights, U.S. News & World Report columnist Dan Gilgoff argues. According to Gilgoff, "supporters of legal abortion outnumbered abortion-rights opponents by 54% to 40% as recently as last year," but the new survey found that a majority of Democrats "now say they'd like to reduce the number of abortions, while conservatives have grown even more intensely antiabortion." Gilgoff continues that Gregory Smith, a senior Pew researcher who helped author the report, said that the findings marked an "unusual shift" and that he was "struck by the large number of groups that have moved on the issue," including whites, Hispanics, men, women, college graduates and those without college degrees.

Gilgoff argues that the survey results indicate "Democratic rule has proved an organizing boon" for the antiabortion-rights movement. However, the survey also presents "an opportunity for the White House to allay the fears of moderates and some abortion foes by delivering on [Obama's] promise to find common ground on the issue," according to Gilgoff. The Obama administration is developing a plan to reduce the need for abortion through "common ground" approaches, and the survey indicates that "Obama's efforts to defuse the issue may be paying off," Gilgoff writes. The results show that although "conservative opposition to abortion is hardening, ... concern about abortion is actually falling," Gilgoff says. According to the survey, 25% of conservative Republicans consider abortion a critical issue, compared with one-third in 2006.

The survey's findings also "sugges[t] that the country is growing nervous that Democrats will overreach on abortion rights," particularly in health care reform where the issue has been hotly debated, Gilgoff argues. Abortion-rights opponents claim that Democrats' health reform proposals will permit the use of federal funding for abortion coverage, and Democrats "insist their proposals use only private premiums to pay for abortions," he continues. According to Gilgoff, conservative critics of a proposal to segregate public and private funds to ensure that no government money is used for abortion coverage call it a "'paper fiction' that undermines Obama's pledge to make health care reform abortion neutral."

Meanwhile, abortion-rights advocates "are much less concerned about the issue" than they were under President George W. Bush, Gilgoff says, noting that 8% of liberal Democrats cited abortion rights as a critical issue in the most recent poll, compared with one-third in 2006. Pew's Smith said that abortion-rights supporters are "more relaxed" with Obama in the White House. "That's bad news for abortion-rights groups, who are fighting to keep abortion coverage in the proposed health care reform plans," Gilgoff writes.

Gilgoff argues that a recent meeting between Obama and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) -- who is leading efforts among antiabortion-rights Democrats in the House to increase restrictions on federal funding for abortion coverage -- is "a sign that the president may be willing to compromise on the issue." Gilgoff adds that "after months of trying," Stupak "finally secured a meeting" last week with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "It looks as if the Democratic Party may be shifting on abortion, too," Gilgoff says (Gilgoff, U.S. News & World Report, 10/9).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.