Gallup released a poll today that the right is in love with:
A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves “pro-life” on the issue of abortion and 42% “pro-choice.” This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.
So does that make us a pro-life nation? By reading that first paragraph you would sure think so, but let’s look at the next question:
Even with 51% saying they are “pro-life”, we still have less than 1/4 of this country who think abortion should be illegal. Doesn’t that actually make only 23% of the country pro-life?
But it doesn’t stop there. It’s not that the nation is moving towards pro-life at all. Let’s go deeper into this poll:
The source of the shift in abortion views is clear in the Gallup Values and Beliefs survey. The percentage of Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) calling themselves “pro-life” rose by 10 points over the past year, from 60% to 70%, while there has been essentially no change in the views of Democrats and Democratic leaners.
Well this actually proves something a lot of us have been saying all along – the Republican Party is moving more towards the right. That means the Republicans are losing moderate voices. Here it is in graph form:
Yup the Democrats have stayed pretty consistent. The Republicans are seeing a major shift, and given what happened last November we can’t really say that shift is in their best interest.