{"id":2042,"date":"2010-03-15T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T15:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/15\/so-you-care-but-how-much\/"},"modified":"2010-03-13T22:07:55","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T05:07:55","slug":"so-you-care-but-how-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/15\/so-you-care-but-how-much\/","title":{"rendered":"So you care: but how much?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gallup Polls Finding Younger Americans More Strongly Pro-Life on Abortion<\/a><\/p>\n

The Gallup polling agency released an analysis today of its polling data going back to 1975 and it found that younger Americans are currently more strongly pro-life than middle-aged Americans. The polling results give the pro-life movement hope that public opinion will continue moving in the pro-life direction.<\/p>\n

Looking at a combination of its polls from 2005-2009, just 24 percent of Americans between the ages of 18-29 support keeping abortion legal for any reason throughout pregnancy.<\/p>\n

That’s less than the 26 percent of 50-64 year-olds who support all legal abortions and less than the 28 percent of 30-49 year-olds who support it. As has been the case since Roe, the oldest Americans above 65 are the most pro-life with only about 16 percent saying they support all abortions.<\/p>\n

Looking at it another way in the 2005-2009 polls, 23 percent of 18-29 year-olds say all abortions should be illegal compared with 17 percent of those 30-49 and those 50-64. The number is even higher than those 65+, 21 percent of whom want all abortions illegal.<\/p>\n

“As a result, 18- to 29-year-olds are now roughly tied with seniors as the most likely of all age groups to hold this position on abortion — although all four groups are fairly close in their views. This is a sharp change from the late 1970s, when seniors were substantially more likely than younger age groups to want abortion to be illegal,” Gallup noted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which leads to the inevitable question: if the twenty-somethings are really more pro-life than they used to be, what combination of ignorance and obfuscation led to disproportionate numbers of them voting for Obama?<\/p>\n

One possible answer: when they are asked a direct question, they give an answer that feels good to them, but they don’t really care enough about it to affect major decisions like whom to vote for.<\/p>\n

Polls often don’t measure how strongly<\/i> people hold the views they hold, or how much it matters to them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Share this:<\/h3>