[Fwd: Re: Abortion acceptability data]

[Katha Pollitt]

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> 
>
> 
> 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
> 
> > WOJTEK -- You don't believe opinion polls mean much, you think most people just answer with received opinions and predigested media cliches, and you also think polls don't  predict how people will vote or act -- and yet you think a set of international comparisons of professional -versus-working-class  opinions tells us something!  

Hmmm...

Katha

ps. As for talking about abortion in ways that appeal to working class
people -- why do you assume pro-choicers and feminists don't try to do
this? I assure you, the political campaigns and ad campaigns of the big
pro-choice organizations are rigorously focussed grouped.(that's why,
for instance, they fight anti-choice measures by talking about govt
intrusion on privacy rather than by talking about women's rights). And
believe it or not, abortion  activists and grass roots feminists, people
like suzanne Pharr for example, spend a lot of time on this issue.  some
of them are even working class themselves!