Professor Raymond J. Adamek (Department of Sociology, Kent State
University) has done the pro-life movement a great service in his study
“Abortion Polls 1965-1998: Designed to Measure or to Mold Public Opinion?”
His analysis of major opinion polls on the abortion question during that
time frame reveals that, given the way the questions are asked, what is
being measured is not the public's opinion about the current abortion laws
and practice. What is being measured is their opinion about imaginary
abortion laws and practice. This is simply because so many of the
questions misrepresent the facts.
Professor Adamek explains, “On 85 occasions from 1973 to 1998, 8 major
pollsters described Roe v. Wade as permitting abortion during 'the first
three months of pregnancy.'[T]his description is incomplete and
misleading, since it gives the uninformed respondent the impression that
the Court did not legalize abortion beyond the first trimester, and
focuses the attention of the informed respondent on only part of the
decision.”
A reading of Roe and subsequent abortion decisions, a study of the
legislation and Court battles on partial-birth abortion, or a journey
through the “A” section of the Yellow Pages of a major city is enough to
dispel any doubts that abortion is legal throughout pregnancy. So why
can't a poll that wants to measure what people think about that policy ask
people what they think about that policy, instead of what they think about
some different policy?
The conclusion: You simply can't believe a poll that tells you that most
Americans agree with “Roe vs. Wade.” They still don't know what the
decision said, and it is most likely that the pollster hasn't helped them
find out.
Another imbalance in abortion poll questions is the way they speak about
“rights.” Professor Adamek explains that he analyzed “all questions from
1965 through 1998 that explicitly mentioned the woman or the unborn and
the word 'right(s)'.An illustrative 'woman's right' question is: Do you
favor or oppose the Supreme Court ruling that women have the right to have
an abortion during the first three months of their pregnancy? (Yankelovich
Clancy Shulman 4/5/89). We found 66 items asking about the woman's right
to (choose) abortion but none asking exclusively about the unborn's right
to life! By asking questions about only one side of the rights issue,
polls yield an incomplete and skewed picture of public opinion.”
A third problem area is the fact that 65% of questions referred to the
abortion-making decision as one in which the doctor was involved. Yet in
reality, fewer than 25% of women, if that many, bring the doctor into the
decision making process at all. Now since the majority of Americans
approve medical necessity as a justification for abortion, mentioning the
doctor in the question increases the “pro-choice” responses. Questions
which specify the actual reasons for which abortions occur would yield a
better measure of what people think about abortion practice in America.
Good practical advice, therefore: Don't just look at a poll's results;
look at its questions.
(Fr. Pavone is the National Director of Priests for Life, P.O. Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314; Tel: 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515; email: mail@priestsforlife.org; website: www.priestsforlife.org.)
