Short takes (5/28/09)

In continuing good news from the pro-life front, a majority of Americans are more informed about abortion.  In a poll conducted by the Polling Company for Americans United for Life, sixty-eight percent of respondents said they knew someone personally who had had an abortion, and believe that abortion hurts women; thirty percent said they did not know anyone in that category. 

 

Of those who knew a post-abortive woman, 55 percent said her abortion had been a negative experience, thirty-three percent described it as a positive event. Fifty-three percent of respondents said abortion in general was a bad thing for women; only 13 percent believed in general it was a good thing. Asked to describe adverse results of abortion, 51 percent said it causes negative emotional impact, 46 percent cited negative psychological problems, 38 percent named adverse spiritual or religious impact, 33 percent said it might cause medical or physical problems, and 25 percent said abortion might influence future relationships with men. Another 24 percent said abortions might cause all of the above effects except for the impact on future relationships with men. Read more on LifeNews.com. 

 

Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, taken each May, finds the United States inching to the right on measures of moral acceptability. The 2009 edition finds on a handful of the 15 index measures, Americans (and especially Republicans) are becoming slightly more conservative. 

 

While majorities continue to find divorce, gambling, and embryonic stem-cell research as morally acceptable, each of those numbers has declined in the last year.  Issues with the most disagreement are not surprisingly having a baby outside of marriage (51 percent acceptable; 45 percent unacceptable) and gay or lesbian relationships (49 percent acceptable; 47 percent unacceptable). Solid majorities view abortion (63 percent), cloning (88 percent), suicide (80 percent), polygamy (91 percent), and extramarital affairs (92 percent) as morally wrong. Read more on Gallup.com or LifeNews.com.