Statistically Speaking......

We've just spent a few days wandering around southwest Michigan in our little RV.  Our access to news was a bit limited because we were busy exploring art galleries, museums, woods, small towns and interesting gift shops. TV reception was spotty at best.....but when we did hear or see any news coverage we found that another state was passing/had passed strict new laws governing a woman's right to choice....anti-abortion proponents were speaking loud and proud and dominating the issue.  I watched or listened thinking..."I'm sorry, but wasn't this already decided?"

So when I got home I went to the internet to do a little exploring on my own. I went to the PEW Research Center, a credible source, and discovered the results of a survey done in September 2018. The survey examined how the US electorate felt about abortion. And over and over, no matter the metric used, the results had me scratching my head. And so I share a few quotes:

When answering on the basis of religious preference: About six-in-ten white evangelical Protestants (61%) think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. By contrast, 74% of religiously unaffiliated Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do two-thirds of white mainline Protestants (67%). Catholics are somewhat more divided; 51% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 42% say it should be illegal.

When answering on the basis of political party:  About six-in-ten Republicans (59%) say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. By contrast, three-quarters (76%) of Democrats say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Among independents, 60% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

When answering on the basis of gender: Men and women express similar views on abortion; 60% of women say it should be legal in all or most cases, as do 57% of men.

When answering on the basis of education: About seven-in-ten college graduates (71%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do 60% of those with some college education. Opinion is more evenly divided among those with a high school degree or less: 48% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 47% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.

When answering on the basis of age: Among adults under age 30, 63% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do a majority of adults in their 30s and 40s (59%). More than half of those in their 50s and early 60s (56%) and those ages 65 and older (57%) say the same.

And then I found one more source, perhaps a bit more liberal than PEW Research, but Mother Jones reported : Alabama is a conservative, pro-life state, but most voters there actually don’t support banning abortion in cases of rape and incest. A poll conducted last year but never before released showed that just 31% of voters in Alabama support banning abortion in all cases, while 65% of voters oppose banning abortion in cases of rape and incest.

So again, I sit here and wonder. If, using the numbers, over and over a majority of Americans support the woman's right to choose whether or not to bring a pregnancy to term how are these state legislative bodies forcing us to re-examine the issue?  As I look at the above statistics I see that the one group most in favor of stiff anti-abortion laws are the evangelical protestants. So then I got curious again...back to PEW Research to find that 70.6% of church-going US citizens identify as christian and of that number 25.4% identify as evangelical christians.

25.4%. And 61% of those citizens believe abortion should be illegal in every case and punishments for providing or obtaining an abortion should be severe. So that's actually not anywhere near a majority of our electorate.

Those numbers just don't make sense to me....and while I admit that I am no mathematician....it seems the majority here in America support a woman's right to work with her physician to make choices that reflect her best interests. 

So what do we do.....?  Get out the vote.