Those who wish to advance a pro-abortion agenda have a lot of money and influence behind them, far more than pro-lifers do. But American attitudes on abortion are trending toward life.
People, especially young people, are bombarded every day by pro-abortion messages from culturally influential people. Celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Busy Philipps, and Anne Hathaway are outspokenly engaged in the abortion debate, as are many, many others. But these Hollywood elites don’t speak for your average American.
The same goes for the powerful abortion lobby. According to FollowTheMoney.org, “pro-choice abortion-policy organizations outspend pro-life ones, by anywhere from 20% to 900%, nearly every year, going back to 1990, which is the oldest data gathered by the Center for Responsive Politics … for example, in 2018, pro-life groups put a total of $4.8 million toward independent spending and campaign contributions at the state and federal level … pro-choice groups spent $50.7 million.”
In Alabama, which has received a lot of attention for passing pro-life measures this year, the pro-life side was outspent by an astounding 100-to-1, a truly staggering figure. All that spending didn’t deter legislators.
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To say that the pro-abortion side has a financial edge doesn’t even begin to cover it. With such a disparity of money in politics, one might expect the pro-abortion agenda to be taking hold of American hearts and minds. This is even more true when one factors in the onslaught of pro-abortion messages we all regularly endure from influential personalities. But there is surprising evidence to the contrary.
A Marist survey taken after the passage of New York’s radical abortion law and uproar over a now-failed late term abortion bill in Virginia found that Americans are just as likely to identify as “pro-life” as they are to identify as “pro-choice.” Democrats and younger people in particular had experienced a change of heart from previous surveys in how they identify when faced with the extreme nature of New York’s law and Virginia’s proposal. About a third of Democrats (34%) and 47% of younger Americans said they identify as pro-life.
Perhaps the reason for the shift away from the “pro-choice” label among so many is the general repulsion Americans have toward late term abortion policies and proposals such as those of New York, Virginia, and elsewhere. The Marist survey found, in addition, that 71% of Americans say abortion should be generally illegal during the third trimester. Another Gallup poll found that only 13% of Americans support legal abortion during the final three months of pregnancy.
The future doesn’t look promising for the pro-abortion side either. Support for restrictions on abortion is growing fastest among young adults, according to Gallup. There’s no place where this is more evident than each year at the March for Life. As one skeptical journalist covering the event put it, “I was especially struck by the large number of young people among the tens of thousands at the march. It suggests that the battle over abortion will endure for a long time to come.”
With money and influence stacked against us, the pro-life movement continues to grow. Why? Americans love and respect life, which was freely given to all of us, and which we must safeguard for those who cannot protect themselves.
LifeNews Note: Jeanne Mancini is the president of the March for Life.
