SMRs and AMRs

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

As Texas G.O.P. Revives Abortion Ban, a Look at Public Opinion

By MICAH COHEN, NYT

The Texas Legislature began a second special session on Monday to again take up a bill that would, among other provisions, ban abortions in Texas after 20 weeks of gestation. The bill failed in a previous special session after State Senator Wendy Davis stood for roughly 11 hours in a filibuster that brought national attention to the fight.

The Texas bill is still expected to become law, however. And Ms. Davis’s filibuster came several days after Republicans in the United States House of Representatives succeeded in passing a similar ban (though that bill has virtually no chance of being taken up in the Senate). And since 2010, 12 other states with Republican-led Legislatures have passed bills that ban abortions after 20 weeks (many of those laws are being challenged in court as unconstitutional).

Discussions of women’s reproductive health have proved politically problematic for Republicans in recent years, but public opinion shows that Republican legislators pushing 20-week bans may be on safer political footing.

While polls have consistently found that a majority of Americans support a right to an abortion in all or most circumstances, surveys also show that support for abortion narrows further into a pregnancy.

(More here.)

2 Comments:

Blogger Tom Koch said...

Now that we can more clearly see that the 'blob of cells,' is indeed a human life, more and more people are coming to their senses and becoming pro-choice - they simply choose life for the baby.

9:56 PM  
Blogger Minnesota Central said...

Interesting poll ...
31% believe that all abortion should be illegal
while another poll asks the question regarding food stamps and 40% believe they should be cut.

So does that mean :
Save the Fetus, Starve the Child ?

The number of abortions is steadily being reduced ... latest data from the Minnesota Department of Health show the number of abortions performed in Minnesota dropped from just over 11,000 in 2011 to about 10,700 in 2012 ... and a 2008 report shows that Minnesota peaked in 1980 at 19,028.
That 2008, report has very detailed information ... of the 12,948 procedures performed, 64 were after 20 weeks ... further, the number of rapes (76) and incest (12) were less than the number of fetal anomalies (150) yet, the reason why a woman would have an abortion after 20 weeks is when fetal anomalies are definitively known.

Yet, only 31% believe that all abortions must be eliminated ... but 40% believe that Food Stamps are a bigger problem --- do they realize that nearly half of all Minnesotans who receive food assistance are children. Eight in 10 of them live below the poverty line ...
yep, "Starving the Child" is a bigger social evil than "Saving the Fetus".

9:32 AM  

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