The headline to today’s AP-NORC poll should be very discouraging to pro-abortionists: “Most say restrict abortion after 1st trimester.”
For context, bear in mind the poll comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to hear a Mississippi abortion law which bans abortion after the 15th week.
First, the top drawer conclusions
61% of Americans say abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances in the first trimester of a pregnancy. However, 65% said abortion should usually be illegal in the second trimester, and 80% said that about the third trimester.
Breaking out the numbers further we find
Second trimester abortions—
34% say they should usually [19%] or always [15%] be legal, and another 30% say they should be illegal in most but not all cases.
Another 35% say abortion in the second trimester should be illegal in all cases, making for a total of 65% who think abortions should be illegal in all cases are most cases.
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Third trimester abortions—
19% think most [11%] or all [8%] abortions should be legal, and another 26% say they should be illegal only in most cases.
The accompany chart explained at another 54% say it should be illegal in all cases!
So, to go back to the nub paragraph, 80% believe third trimester abortions should be illegal either in all cases [54%] or most cases [26%].
The AP story addresses the number of abortions in the second and third trimester.
Abortions after the first trimester are not rare, but they are exceptions to the norm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in its most recent report on abortion in the U.S., estimated that 92% of the abortions in 2018 were performed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which directly solicits information from abortionists, tell us:
Although most abortions take place early in pregnancy, 11% of women who obtain an abortion do so after the first trimester (at 13 weeks after the last menstrual period or later), and slightly more than 1% of abortions are performed at 21 weeks or later.
Guttmacher found there were 862,320 abortions performed in 2017 [https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states], the latest figures it has.
11% equals 94,855 abortions
1% equals 8,623 abortions
Remember there are a host of reasons to believe these numbers under-represent the real figures. In all likelihood, there are well over 10,000 abortions after the 13th week.
Ten or eleven thousand is not a “rare” incidence.
One other thing—the annual Marist poll taken for the Knights of Columbus—gives us another look at public opinions. What do their numbers published in January 2021 tell us?
The question asked of 1,173 adults: Abortion should be…
- allowed only during the first three months of a pregnancy [25%]
- allowed only In cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman [mother] [28%]
- allowed only to save the life of the woman [mother] [11%]
- never be permitted under any circumstance [12%]
That is a total of 76%.