Abortion polls: Majority either against it or want "stricter limits"

[mudesi]

The following link gives several opinion polls and numbers on Abortion in the United States of America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_States#Public_opinion

Overall, 22% want abortion to be completely outlawed, while 38% want stricter limits on abortion. Interestingly, the numbers do not change much between men and women.

Broken down in terms of trimester (Link), 66% think it should be legal in the first, 25% in the second, and only 10% in the third.

Another poll gives us these:
Only 31% of Americans think abortion should be permitted in all cases. The rest either want more restrictions or have special cases such as rape, incest, etc. Only 5% thought it should not be permitted under any circumstance. Keep that number in mind.

Because here is what I found really interesting: These are the abortion numbers in Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Canada#Opinion_polls

In 2001, 32% of Canadians think abortion should be legal in all circumstances. That's DOWN from the year 2000, and also only 1 percentage point above the American polls.

52% of Canadians thought it should only be legal under "certain" circumstances.

Now get this: 14% of CANADIANS thought abortion should not be legal under any circumstances. That is higher than their American counterparts, and up 9% from the year 2000.

How is it possible, given that Canadians have similar opinions on abortion as Americans, that there is literally no legal limit on abortion in Canada. There literally does not exist a law on the Canadian books regarding abortion, at all. The government is completely uninvolved in the issue, and frankly, Canadians don't seem to base their vote on it in any meaningful way.

Why is abortion not a political issue in Canada, even though more Canadians oppose abortion?

[msongs]

1. free birth control pills/condoms on request if 18 or older nt

[angrycarpenter]

2. Moral majority

blame them.

[MiniMe]

5. The Moral Majority is neither

They aren't the majority, and they sure aren't moral.

[angrycarpenter]

6. the oxymoran that destroyed America. nt

[stillcool]

3. Perhaps Candadians have access to ...

health care, and contraception? Oh what a world that would be. Do people really think that women 'want' to have abortions? All those poor babies...

• In 2000, 1.5 million U.S. children had an incarcerated parent. Between 1990-2001, the number of women in prison increased by 106%.
• In 1995, 12% of children in foster care had not received routine health care. 90% had not received services to address developmental delays.
• Between 1992-2002, the number of infants and toddlers entering foster care increased by 110%.
• In 1993, more than 60% of the homeless population in NYC municipal shelters were former foster youth.
• According to a 1999 report, less than 50% of foster youth had graduated from high school, compared to 85% of the general population.
• In 2000, of 732 mid-western foster care youths, nearly 52% had lived in three or more foster homes and had moved schools.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are more than half a million children and youth in the U.S. foster care system, a 90% increase since 1987.Three of 10 of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,

A study by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenille Justice found 70% of these youth meet the criteria for at least one mental health disorder. What's worse is that 36% of the parents of these youth intentionaly involved the juvenille justice system to access mental health services...some 12,700 children were places in either child welfare, or the juvenilled justice systems to access mental health systems (U.S. GAO 2003) Of course, the U.S. DOJ in recent investigations into the conditions in these juvenille detention and correctional facilities, found inadequate access to treatment, inappropriate use of medications, and neglect of suicide attempts nationwide (U.S.DOJ 2005).
---80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.

* 872,000 children and youth were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect in the United States in 2004.

Children are 11 times more likely to be abused in State care than they are in their own homes.
http://fostersurvivor.netfirms.com/statistics.shtml

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Table 3-4 Victimization Trends, 2001-2005
Child Maltreatment 2005
2001 population-72,603,552- victims-904,666
2002 population-72,894,483- victims-897,168
2003 population-73,043,506- victims-893,296
2004 population-73,089,769- victims-876,937
2005 population-74,502,089- victims-899,454

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/statistics/entryexit2005.htm
Foster Care in the Year 2020 (if nothing changes in child welfare trends)
Children who will experience the foster care system Over 9,000,00014
Children who will age out of the foster care system 300,00015
Foster youth aging out of the system that will experience homelessness 75,00016
Foster youth aging out of the system that graduate from college 9,00017
Number of children killed by abuse or neglect 22,50018
http://www.casey.org/MediaCenter/MediaKit/FactSheet.htm

Nationwide, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are increasingly focusing on a growing tragedy—large numbers of youth with mental health problems becoming involved in the juvenile justice system. A recent study by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice
found approximately 70% of the youth in residential juvenile justice settings meet criteria for at least one mental health disorder(Shufelt &Cocozza, 2006).

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To make matters worse....

--According to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, since 1990 the incarceration of youth in adult jails has increased 208%. On any given day, more than 7,000 young people are held in adult jails.

-- Increasing numbers of young people have been
placed in adult jails where they are at risk of assault, abuse, and death.
Currently, 40 states permit or require that youth charged as adults be placed pre-trial in an adult jail, and in some states they may be required to serve their entire sentence in an adult jail. According to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, since 1990 the incarceration of youth in adult jails has increased 208%.
http://www.campaign4youthjustice.org/Downloads/NEWS/JPI014Consequences_Summary.pdf

In 1985 one out of every 320 Americans were in jail.

In 1995 one out of every 167 Americans were in jail.

Between1980 and 1994, the number of people in federal and state prisons increased 221%.

Today, 2 million Americans are in prison.
1.2 million are African-American men.

[Horse with no Name]

4. It's Wikipedia

No doubt some nutjob Anti-Choice person cherry picked this info to put in there.

[idgiehkt]

7. if I had to guess

The majority of Canadian Christians attend church infrequently. Cross-national surveys of religiosity rates such as the Pew Global Attitudes Project indicate that, on average, Canadian Christians are less observant that those of the United States but are still more overtly religious than their counterparts in Britain or in western Europe. In 2002, 30% of Canadians reported to Pew researchers that religion was "very important" to them. This figure was similar to that in the United Kingdom (33%) and Italy (27%). In the United States, the equivalent figure was 59%, in France, a mere 11%. Regional differences within Canada exist, however, with British Columbia and Quebec reporting especially low metrics of traditional religious observance, as well as a significant urban-rural divide. The rates for weekly church attendance are contested, with estimates running as low as 11% as per the latest Ipsos-Reid poll and as high as 25% as per Christianity Today magazine. This American magazine reported that three polls conducted by Focus on the Family, Time Canada and the Vanier Institute of the Family showed church attendance increasing for the first time in a generation, with weekly attendance at 25 per cent. This number is similar to the statistics reported by premier Canadian sociologist of religion Prof. Reginald Bibby of the University of Lethbridge, who has been studying Canadian religious patterns since 1975. Although lower than in the US, which has reported weekly church attendance at about 40% since the Second World War, weekly church attendance rates are higher than those in Northern Europe (for example, Austria 9%, Germany 6%, France 8%, Netherlands 6 % and UK 10%).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Canada

but it is curious why you picked the Gallup stat of 14% when the results actually look like this:

In a Léger poll taken September 2001, 46.6% of respondents say they are personally "for" abortion, while 37.6% say they are personally "against" abortion. In the same poll, 54.5% of respondents agreed with the idea that "only women should have the right to decide to have an abortion," while 38.5% disagreed.
A Gallup poll in December 2001 asked respondents: "Do you think abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances or illegal in all circumstances and in what circumstances?" The results showed that 32% of Canadians believed abortion should be legal in all circumstances (down from 37% in 2000), 52% believed abortion should only be legal in certain circumstances and 14% thought abortions should be illegal in all circumstances, (up 9% from 2000).
In a Léger poll taken January 2002, 47% of respondents said abortion was "not immoral," while 41.8% said it was.
In a poll conducted by the National Post in November 2002, 78% of respondents answered "yes" to the question: "Should women have complete freedom on their decision to have an abortion?".
A poll in October 2003 conducted by Leger asked about prenatal legal protection, and several abortion-related topics, 63% said they favoured legal protection for human life before birth and 69% favour informed consent legislation on abortion.
In a Gallup Canada poll taken September 2004, 54% of respondents said they personally thought abortion was "morally acceptable."
In a Gallup Canada poll taken April 2005, 52% of respondents say they would like to see Canadian abortion laws "remain the same," 20% say they would like the laws to be "less strict," while 24% say they would like the laws to be "more strict."
In an October 2005 Environics poll, commissioned by Life Canada, when asked "at what point in human development should the law protect human life," 30% of respondents said "From conception on," 19% said "After three months of pregnancy," 11% said "After six months of pregnancy," and 33% said "From the point of birth."
In an April 2006 Leger poll, 34% of respondents said they found abortion "immoral," behind paedophilia, extra-marital affair, prostitution, alcohol abuse, sexual relations before the age of 16, pornographic films and blasphemy. <2>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Canada#Opinion_polls

Gallup leans right, at least in the U.S.

[stravu9]

8. leave it up to the States, like how gambling used to only be legal in Nevada..

then is will be an attraction. they can stimulate local economies. If your State says NO then take a little vacation.

[idgiehkt]

9. poor women can't afford to

interestingly that might be one of the reasons for the reported drop in abortions, as some states are not recording the number of abortions performed for women traveling from out of state as part of their # of abortions performed.

edit: not surprisingly poor women are the demographic that has seen an increase in the #'s of abortions.

[stravu9]

10. I know. I'm a Social Worker who works with pregnant women and set them up with Medicaid housing etc.

Most of my clients have their tubes tied after a baby or too anymore they are opting for fewer children to try to improve their life style. And with _welfare reform_ and the time limit on it they will REALLY be in trouble if they have too many.
I'm pro-choice I am just trying to think of a compromise of some sort. And maybe just a trip over the state line wouldn't be so bad.

[idgiehkt]

11. except that

those who can't afford to travel will induce their own abortions or used physical tactics like the coathanger or trauma...

I think that the section of society that opposes it is very 'eye for an eye' and doesn't have a problem with women dying from self-induced abortions because in that part of society's eyes, these women deserve whatever they get.