NARAL is once again using misleading poll statistics to shore up support for its pro-abortion agenda. WorldNetDaily again deserves credit for scooping this one, as their headline and story indicate that the Associated Press and the pollsters involved have been stonewalling on fessing up to some bogus numbers. What makes the poll bogus is the way the questions are worded. According to the story "the poll, which was conducted Nov. 19-21, featured this statement: "The 1973 Supreme Court ruling called Roe v. Wade made abortion in the first three months of pregnancy legal." This statement, after 32 years of debate on this subject, has to have been known by the pollsters to be an outright lie. Reproduced here is actual text from Roe V Wade itself:
(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician.
(b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health.
(c) For the stage subsequent to viability, the State in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.
In short, as has been pointed out countless times, in the first trimester all abortions are legal. In the second, restrictions can be imposed for the sake of the mother, not the child. In the third, restrictions have a limitless exception for "health", as defined in Doe v Bolton:
"medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age - relevant to the wellbeing of the patient. All these factors may relate to health. This allows the attending physician the room he needs to make his best medical judgment. And it is room that operates for the benefit, not the disadvantage, of the pregnant woman."
In essence, abortion has, since 1973, been permissible for nine months. Recent years have shown how potent this decision has been as even partial birth abortion has become commonplace. For a poll to suggest that abortion is legal only in the first trimester and then ask respondents to agree with keeping such a law legal is pure deception.
Bernard Nathanson, one of the founders of NARAL and long a convert to the pro-life view, writes in Confessions of an Ex-Abortionist how NARAL has from the beginning used deception to advance its agenda. In the early days, in attempts to legalize abortion, NARAL fabricated statistics:
"Knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated,we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60% of Americans were in favor of permissive abortion. This is the tactic of the self-fulfilling lie. Few people care to be in the minority. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000 but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000. Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000."
Nathanson outlines three main tactics used by the organization he helped found. 1) Capture the media. 2)Play the Catholic card. 3) Suppress all evidence that life begins at conception. This remains the mode of operation of the pro-abortion view. Media attention is heavily slanted in a way that favors Roe. Catholics in particular and Christians in general are marginalized as being opposed to abortion for purely "religious" reasons, as if evidence of life in the womb were non-existent. Finally, that very evidence never sees the light of day. One can go to any public library and learn that the heart of an unborn child begins beating just 18 days after conception and that brain function can be measured by the 49th day. Has this information ever been presented in any national news outlet when this topic is reported on?
A few brave souls have carried on the lonely fight. Most Americans, if the facts are understood, are very much opposed to the vast majority of abortions in this country, but only a few are fighting this battle on the front lines. Nathanson is one, as is the "Jane Roe" of Roe v Wade.
Norma McCorvey spoke outside the Supreme Court building about her pending challenge to Roe v Wade. The inside cover of her book reads, "Poor, pregnant and desperate, Norma McCorvey fell into the hands of two young and ambitious lawyers. They were looking for a plaintiff with whom they could challenge the Texas state law prohibiting abortion, and Norma signed on." Canada's prolife newspaper The Interim has a good brief summary of her story.
Because McCorvey is the original "Roe" in the case, she has a unique standing with the court to challenge its finding. It is my hope that the tide is turning and that this 32 year long history of sacrifice of infants is nearing an end.
Proverbs Daily has a good series on Sanctitiy of Life Week, 2005.
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