While many Democrats and women find Palin's support for criminalizing abortion to be outrageous, a recent survey by the Pew organization finds that roughly 40% of Americans generally agree with her views.
Combined, 41% of Americans answer that abortion should be outlawed in either in all cases (15%) or most cases (26%). Among White evangelicals, who Pew measures at roughly 30% of the American public, this support shoots up to a combined 62% (19% all cases, 43% most cases).
UPDATE: One problem in comparing this poll to Palin's specific views is the unclear nature of what counts as "most cases" for respondents. As commenters below note, Palin's position is to only allow abortion in cases where there is threat to the mother's life, but not for incest or rape. Few polls separate out the conditions differentiating between rape and incest and threat to the mother. Below are two additional examples from PollingReport.com.
Time magazine, August 2008
Which of these positions best represents your views about abortion? A woman should be able to get an abortion if she wants one, no matter what the reason, up until the time the fetus is viable, that is, can live on its own (46% support). Abortion should only be legal in certain circumstances, such as when a woman's health is endangered or when the pregnancy results from rape or incest (40%). Abortion should be illegal in all circumstances, even if the mother's life is in danger (10%)."
NBC News Sept. 28
"Which comes closest to your view on abortion: abortion should always be legal (25% support); should be legal most of the time (24% support); should be made illegal except in cases of rape , incest and to save the mother's life (37%); or abortion should be made illegal without any exceptions? (10%)"
Perhaps the best survey items on the specific conditions shaping support for abortion rights have been asked in polling sponsored by Fox News. In this case, we see that when the specific conditions of threat to a mother or circumstance of pregnancy is primed in survey respondents minds, support for abortion rights shifts to 70%.
FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. Oct. 23-24, 2007.N=900 registered voters nationwide.
"Please tell me if you think abortion should be legal or illegal in each of the following situations..."
"If the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest"
70% Legal 21% Illegal 9% Not sure"If the pregnancy puts the mother's life at risk"
73% Legal 15% Illegal 12% Unsure"If the baby has a fatal birth defect"
53% Legal 30% Illegal18% Unsure"If the pregnancy is unwanted"
39% Legal 50% Illegal 11% Unsure
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Dr. Nisbet again demonstrating the importance of accurate and unbiased framing. If, as pointed out by JimFiore above, he had his facts right, one could just as easily write the headline "85% of Americans disagree with Palin on Abortion."
Even if the 26% in question could be split based on the ambiguity of the survey, that still leaves a rather large percentage, likely >70% that disagree with her. So methodological hair-splitting aside, I'm still puzzled as to what Dr Nisbet is getting at with a "40% agree" headline. Its still a misleading way of saying that most disagree.
Palin opposes abortion except for the imminent death of the mother, with no exceptions for rape or incest. It's unclear to me what percentage of the `abortion should be illegal in most cases' would agree with that. I would think a more accurate statement would be `15 percent of Americans agree with Palin, and another 26 percent are fairly close to Palin's views, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.'
For something emotive like abortion you need to ask very specific questions to really be able to judge the percentages. I suspect you would get different percentages if it was done in such a manner - such as asking the same kind of questions medical doctors ask - i.e. 'is carrying the pregnancy to term going to adversely affect the health (physical or mental) of the woman?
I can easily see a decent percentage, perhaps even a majority of people agreeing that this could be an acceptable reason and yet its probably the most common reason given for abortions in many countries.
Would that not put it in the 'legal in most cases' category?
Nope. Palin endores no exceptions. Thus, by your table, only 15% of the population actually agree with her. Lumping in people who want restrictions placed on it is simply not accurate.
Makes for an attention-grabbing headline though.
On the topic of abortion, even many people who defend the possibility of legal abortions, they say they are not pro-abortion, but they dont want to punish women who are in this difficult situation. In Germany a curious thing has happened. Something that reflects that legal abortion affects adversely to the country. And also that the change is possible: you can promote a culture of life with the support of the citizens, when really there is a real wish of avoid abortions. Since the liberalization of abortion in this country, the number of abortions is officially four million. For that reason, among others, children are seen as an unintended effect of having sex. Many people thought it was necessary to promote greater social acceptance of children in an aging society. And civil society acted, without waiting for action by the State to promote births. They joined several media organizations in a campaign. Interestingly, after the campaign, the birth rate has risen in Germany. The video is exciting. Look here: http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=SztG8JpxvHY
Santiago Chiva (Granada, Spain)
My personal view is that abortion should be discouraged in all cases, with the exception of the possible death of the mother.
However, that has nothing to do with my political stance on whether abortion should be legal or not. I think it should be legal, but regulated.
I think it should not be legal after a fetus can live outside the mother's body, unless the mother's life is in danger. But what you have then is induced early labor, it's not an abortion unless there's a loophole which allows the subsequent killing of a living human being.
I can't think of a really good reason why any woman needs to wait until the 7th or 8th month to determine if she wants an abortion.
In general, my view is that fewer things that are illegal, the better off we are as we can concentrate on the truly horrible actions that almost everyone agrees should be illegal.
It really is possible to agree with Sarah Palin and be for the legality of abortion.