For immediate release, Tuesday, May 11, 1999
Contact: David Bunnell, Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation Education Director, 717-541-0034
A poll of Americans conducted this month by the Gallup Organization showed that nearly three out of four adults would outlaw more than 90 percent of abortions if they had their way.
Here's how the numbers broke down, according to USA Today (5/5/99): 1) 16% would ban all abortions;
2) An additional 55% would ban abortions except for rape, incest or the mother's life;
3) Only 27% would keep abortion legal for other reasons.
"Give most Americans their choice," said PPLF Education Director David Bunnell, "and they would put an immediate end to abortion for convenience. But Roe v. Wade still stands in their way. In Roe, the Supreme Court mandated the unconditional legality of abortion for any reason, or even for no reason, a ruling most Americans--men and women--hold in contempt."
Even statistics from abortion advocates such as the Planned Parenthood-associated Guttmacher Institute show that abortions for rape, incest, and the mother's health account for fewer than 10% of all abortions in America.
Pennsylvania Health Department records also provide evidence that most abortions are for convenience and birth control. Forty-five percent of abortions in 1997 (most recent year with statistics published) were repeat abortions and more than 900 Pennsylvania women per year have their fifth or more abortion.
As the American people awaken to the reality of what abortion really is and what it really does to mothers and their children in the womb, their opinions are changing over to the pro-life side. The Gallup poll showed a shift in public opinion, as the number of those who identified themselves as "pro-choice" was NOT a majority. The "pro-choice" versus pro-life percentages in that poll have seen a 16-point turnaround in favor of pro-life in just three years.
"It's time for the Supreme Court to awaken--as the American people have--and relax its hard-line stand, allowing state legislatures to enact reasonable protective measures that will decrease abortion," Bunnell said.
Source: The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, a statewide right-to-life organization dedicated to restoring legal protection and societal respect for innocent lives threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. PA Pro-Life is also the state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee in Washington DC.