Abortion acceptability data

[Katha Pollitt]

Thanks for that interesting statistical material, Wojtek. I don't mean
to quibble, but I wonder how relevant they are to what we are
discussing, which is: what should the position of "the left" be on the
issue of compromising on the LEGALITY and AVAILABILITY of abortion.
Asking people how "acceptable" abortion is to them does not tell us what
they think about what social policy should be. I find many things
totally unacceptable--men leaving their middle-aged wives for younger
models, for example, professors having sex with their students-- that I
believe should be legal.Similarly, most Americans routinely tell
pollsters that they think premarital sex, extramarital sex are ALWAYS
wrong--that doesn't mean they want the govt to police the bedroom. I
really think you and Max are a little too eager to give away the store
on this issue.

  An interesting fact: in the last decade (Alan guttmacher again) 12
countries have liberalized their abortion laws , including Italy and
some of the other countries you cite. Only ONE has made abortion law
more restrictive: Poland. 

best, katha