A new national poll shows Americans think that pro-abortion Democrats are more extreme on abortion than pro-life Republicans. That’s because Americans think the Democrat Party view of abortions up to birth is more extreme than the pro-life Republican view of banning abortions with exceptions such a rape, incest and life of the mother.
The polling firm polling firm WPA Intelligence conducted a poll of 1,000 Americans October 6–10 and shared the results with National Review. It asked Americans to share their views on two different abortion positions: 1. “Allowing abortions up until 9 months of pregnancy for any reason,” or 2. “restricting abortions to only in cases of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is in danger.”
When asked which of the two was “more extreme,” 57 percent of respondents chose “allowing abortions up until 9 months of pregnancy for any reason,” as opposed to just 29 percent who chose “restricting abortions to only in cases of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is in danger.” Fourteen percent said they were unsure which of the two positions is more extreme.
Writer Nate Hochman makes a few excellent observations about how pro-life Republicans need to not shy away from abortion, but get back on the attack because the pro-life view is clearly the more popular of the two.
The new survey may help explain at least part of the reason why the GOP’s post-Dobbs political slump appears to be in the rearview mirror. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, with the six Republican-appointed justices in agreement, conventional wisdom dictated that the abortion issue would be a millstone around the neck of Republicans running in competitive races in the midterms.
The GOP was momentarily flummoxed by the surge of Democrat attacks following the overturn of Roe. But once Republicans recovered from their defensive crouch on the issue and began going on the attack, pointing out that even the ostensible moderate Democrats running in right-leaning areas refuse to support any restrictions on abortion, left-wing attempts to paint the GOP as extreme lost their potency. The shift drives home the broader point that, in contrast to conventional wisdom in certain segments of the Republican consultant class, the way to win on abortion isn’t to avoid or minimize the issue — it’s to go on the attack.
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Some other findings from the poll:
* 65 percent of Democratic voters believed that “the United States is one of the few countries in the world that limits abortions”
* 59 percent believed that “fewer than 500 abortions are performed each year after 20 weeks of pregnancy” even though the figure is 12,000
