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Poll shows a winning position for pro-life candidates

Sep 30, 2024

By David N. O’Steen, Ph.D. and Dave Andrusko

Several polls, including an August North Carolina poll for North Carolina Right to Life taken by the McLaughlin Group, have shown that over 70% of the public would allow abortion to save the life of the mother, in cases of a medical emergency, and in cases of rape or incest. This would prevent about 95% of all abortions.

The North Carolina poll also once again found strong opposition to using tax dollars to pay for abortion (62%) and opposition to allowing abortion as a method of birth control (64%).  Abortion as a method of birth control is just another way of describing elective abortion for personal or social reasons, which account for the vast majority of abortions.

These results raise the question of how well a pro-life candidate, who based their public stand on the above results, would fare against a typical pro-abortion candidate who favored allowing abortion for any reason.

The North Carolina poll posed just this question:

Which of the following candidates would you be more likely to vote for in the general election?

1.  Candidate (A) who believes abortion takes the life of an unborn child and opposes abortion except to save the life of the mother, in cases of rape, incest and a medical emergency.  This candidate also opposes using tax dollars to pay for abortion and says their opponent’s support for unlimited abortion paid for with tax dollars, even as a method of birth control and even late in pregnancy is too extreme.

or

2.  Candidate (B) who believes a woman has a right to have an abortion with no restrictions and says the decision should be left to the woman.  This candidate supports using tax dollars to pay for abortion and says their opponent’s position of opposing abortion is too extreme and dangerous to women.

Results? 50% chose the pro-life candidate (A) while only 38% chose the pro-abortion candidate (B)!

(In a September 2022 national poll using essentially the same question the pro-life candidate also won 50% to 42%.)

We have seen that pro-life political figures who have fashioned their position around limits based on weeks are portrayed by the media as supporting a “ban” or “near total ban,” even if their position would allow the vast majority of abortions to continue.

Most, if not most, pro-life candidates support allowing abortion for the exceptional reasons discussed above. Those candidates need to state that upfront.

A candidate who says they believe abortion should be allowed only to save the life of the mother, in cases of rape or incest, or in case of a medical emergency represents a majority view. They can reach voters who do not support unlimited abortion but feel abortion for those reasons must be allowed. And while those voters are turned off by a “ban,” they are precisely the ones needed to reach a majority.

The pro-life position properly articulated can be the winning position!

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