That's depressing. What are most of those people excluding from "most"? Anything that actually happens in the real world? (Somehow I doubt it, being as in the US, the anti-abortion contingent has been very good at spreading the meme that there's a percentage of women out there who'd have late-term abortions on a whim, or something, never mind that nobody has major surgery on a whim.)
On the other hand, I tend to take a dim view of that sort of thing because I'm definitely in the leftward column. I don't care why a woman wants an abortion (it's not my damn business!); she should be able to have one, period, end of story.
OP Minded — October 23, 2008
Just goes to show how different people think. I'm in the opposite camp as Interroban but havea similar spiel, my view is: "I don't care why a woman wants an abortion, its about the baby's life."
Mike — October 23, 2008
The New York Times confuses me with its pretty graphs that nonetheless fail to mention things like margin of error or why they add up to about 95 each.
Ben — October 23, 2008
that is funny how close it is among groups. I would have expected more variance.
Im with Interrobang on this one. Not the government's decision.
spongekill — October 23, 2008
It's not the government's place to make the call. In terms of morality, it's hardly the black and white situation that so many want it to be. "She should be able to have an abortion, period" sounds great as a soundbite, but consider that you are in fact snubbing out a life. There's no telling what a baby could become in its lifetime- what if MLK had been aborted? Pro-choice people tend to ignore this aspect of the issue.
At the same time, pro-life people ignore the simple lack of rationality behind their position, since there is no alternative to abortion. The "abstinence" idea is asinine and delusional, and the orphanage/foster home system is a disaster as I understand it.
Either way, every situation will be different, and it's not the government's place to make blanket judgments over such a personal matter. If anything this graph shows you just how NOT cut-and-dry the issue is. If people accept that and are prepared to actually comprehend the opposing argument, we may actually get somewhere.... this goes for most divisive issues.
Will — October 23, 2008
It would be nice to have a better idea of what the categories mean. I'm surprised that so many women are on the right side of this chart, actually.
OP Minded — October 24, 2008
Will, the reason you are surprised by so many women being Pro-Life is that the media does an excellent job at hiding it.
Spongekill, you say "there is no alternative to abortion" -- sure there is, its called adoption.
Chuk — October 24, 2008
I bet that the difference between "legal in most cases" and "illegal in most cases" is negligible. It probably simply reflects a difference in how people frame the issue, more that it does the actual content of what is permitted or not.
Something like, "well... abortion is bad... so I should like to think that most cases could be resolved without it..." or vice verse.
I think that it's quite fascinating that this still persists as such a watershed issue, given this clear convergence in public opinion. Mind you, maybe that's politics.
It includes N values. The reason for the missing percentage is that about 5% responded to the questions with "don't know" in most categories.
hypatia — October 24, 2008
"There’s no telling what a baby could become in its lifetime- what if MLK had been aborted? Pro-choice people tend to ignore this aspect of the issue."
Then conversely you can just say; What if Hitler had been aborted? How about Stalin or George W. Bush?
The truth is this is a useless point. If MLK or Hitler had never been born we wouldn't know and we wouldn't care. Even in a hindsight situation we can't claim that things would have turned out differently because if they weren't there someone else might have stepped into the places that they did.
“If men could get pregnant…” | Prawn Salad, Ltd. — May 6, 2011
[...] One recent poll showed a remarkably small difference of opinion between males and females on the issue of whether abortion should be legal. The only possibly significant difference is that women are more likely to want completely unfettered abortion, while men are more likely to want minor limitations. 42% of men think it should be usually or always illegal; 42% of women think it should be usually or always illegal. [...]
Sociological Images encourages people to exercise and develop their sociological imaginations with discussions of compelling visuals that span the breadth of sociological inquiry. Read more…
Comments 11
Interrobang — October 23, 2008
That's depressing. What are most of those people excluding from "most"? Anything that actually happens in the real world? (Somehow I doubt it, being as in the US, the anti-abortion contingent has been very good at spreading the meme that there's a percentage of women out there who'd have late-term abortions on a whim, or something, never mind that nobody has major surgery on a whim.)
On the other hand, I tend to take a dim view of that sort of thing because I'm definitely in the leftward column. I don't care why a woman wants an abortion (it's not my damn business!); she should be able to have one, period, end of story.
OP Minded — October 23, 2008
Just goes to show how different people think. I'm in the opposite camp as Interroban but havea similar spiel, my view is: "I don't care why a woman wants an abortion, its about the baby's life."
Mike — October 23, 2008
The New York Times confuses me with its pretty graphs that nonetheless fail to mention things like margin of error or why they add up to about 95 each.
Ben — October 23, 2008
that is funny how close it is among groups. I would have expected more variance.
Im with Interrobang on this one. Not the government's decision.
spongekill — October 23, 2008
It's not the government's place to make the call. In terms of morality, it's hardly the black and white situation that so many want it to be. "She should be able to have an abortion, period" sounds great as a soundbite, but consider that you are in fact snubbing out a life. There's no telling what a baby could become in its lifetime- what if MLK had been aborted? Pro-choice people tend to ignore this aspect of the issue.
At the same time, pro-life people ignore the simple lack of rationality behind their position, since there is no alternative to abortion. The "abstinence" idea is asinine and delusional, and the orphanage/foster home system is a disaster as I understand it.
Either way, every situation will be different, and it's not the government's place to make blanket judgments over such a personal matter. If anything this graph shows you just how NOT cut-and-dry the issue is. If people accept that and are prepared to actually comprehend the opposing argument, we may actually get somewhere.... this goes for most divisive issues.
Will — October 23, 2008
It would be nice to have a better idea of what the categories mean. I'm surprised that so many women are on the right side of this chart, actually.
OP Minded — October 24, 2008
Will, the reason you are surprised by so many women being Pro-Life is that the media does an excellent job at hiding it.
Spongekill, you say "there is no alternative to abortion" -- sure there is, its called adoption.
Chuk — October 24, 2008
I bet that the difference between "legal in most cases" and "illegal in most cases" is negligible. It probably simply reflects a difference in how people frame the issue, more that it does the actual content of what is permitted or not.
Something like, "well... abortion is bad... so I should like to think that most cases could be resolved without it..." or vice verse.
I think that it's quite fascinating that this still persists as such a watershed issue, given this clear convergence in public opinion. Mind you, maybe that's politics.
theunbeatablekid — October 24, 2008
Here's a link to the press clip from Pew:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/959/slight-but-steady-majority-favors-keeping-abortion-legal
It includes N values. The reason for the missing percentage is that about 5% responded to the questions with "don't know" in most categories.
hypatia — October 24, 2008
"There’s no telling what a baby could become in its lifetime- what if MLK had been aborted? Pro-choice people tend to ignore this aspect of the issue."
Then conversely you can just say; What if Hitler had been aborted? How about Stalin or George W. Bush?
The truth is this is a useless point. If MLK or Hitler had never been born we wouldn't know and we wouldn't care. Even in a hindsight situation we can't claim that things would have turned out differently because if they weren't there someone else might have stepped into the places that they did.
“If men could get pregnant…” | Prawn Salad, Ltd. — May 6, 2011
[...] One recent poll showed a remarkably small difference of opinion between males and females on the issue of whether abortion should be legal. The only possibly significant difference is that women are more likely to want completely unfettered abortion, while men are more likely to want minor limitations. 42% of men think it should be usually or always illegal; 42% of women think it should be usually or always illegal. [...]