Abortion acceptability data

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Jun 2 14:38:50 PDT 1998


At 03:22 PM 6/2/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Wojtek wrote:
>>Finally, the US has one of the lowest abortion acceptance rates (4.06 on
>>average) - only Mexico is lower on abortion acceptance (3.85), while all
>>other countries are higher. Abortion is most acceptable in Sweden (5.39 on
>>average).
>
>Don't American women have abortions more often than women in other core
>capitalist countries do?
>
>Yoshie
>

I do not know, but my point was not about having abortions but about opinions about abortions. These can be quite diffewrent things, as a number of people following this thread have pointed out. I may add my oqn anecdote as well. A few years ago, a bunch of prolifers in MD called for a referendum on to restrict access to abortion (Question 6). Ther decision was based, in part, on poll results showing majority of respondents favouring some restrictions on abortion. Well, their Question 6 was defeated by the marging 2:1. Apparently, it is one thing to respond to a survey and a different thing to vote on an issue.

I personally do not have much faith in opinion polls. They usually reflect what some sociologists call "stock knowledge" and what I termed "canned food for thought" - a set of ready-made opinions formed by the media, the pulpit, hear say etc. When asked, especially on an issue they do not see as immediately relevant, or in a way that does not relate to their own thinking - these people will basically respond with those 'canned phrases."

It takes much more than a survey to find out what people really think on an issue. That is why, BTW, focus groups are so popular nowadays.

The only reason I showed the numbers from the WVS was that they allowed comparing opinions in different countries and different groups. Again, the point I tried to make was that this is what working class people tend to think - and we have address that if we wnat to win their 'hearts and minds' for our cause.

Regards,

WS


>



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