A poll released on June 18, 2000 by the Los Angeles Times newspaper shows a substantial drop in the number of Americans who agree with the Roe vs. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion throughout the United States. The figures for three pollls are:
1991 56%
1996 46%
2000 43%
The Times stated that it's likely that the reduction in support for the legalization of abortion is due to the fact that, as the years go by, fewer Americans are old enough to remember the days before abortion was legalized.
I found this surprising! I remember the days prior to the late 1960's. There were virtually no protests, no pro-abortion demands. To those of you who are younger than 40, let me say this: the push in the US for abortion only started about 1968 - it was a non-issue before that. After that until the 1973 Supreme Court decision there were SOME states that legalized SOME abortions. Even the most extreme pro-abortion individuals were advocating abortions under very limited conditions: rape, incest, health of mother, etc. No one came close to proposing that what is today called partial-birth abortion be legalized. Only the bombshell of the Supreme Court decision made a real difference.
Getting back to the Times poll, another point is worth considering. (1) 57% of those polled said they believe abortion is murder. (2) one-half of these people also said a woman should have the right to choose whether to have an abortion. Putting these two together says that millions of people in this country believe that a woman should be allowed to legally commit one type of murder. That says a lot about our society in the United States in this year 2000.