Exploring the Underlying Poll Numbers behind Abortion (1)
Because of all the conflicting narratives
Data, and research more broadly, give people understanding. They unfold the landscape of relevant facts in a way that unifies the story, as people understand it, and increases clarity.
(This is especially true when the writing style is clear. In other words, the opposite of the infamous epiphany of Calvin’s that “I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!” That’s a little beside the point, but I love that quote.)
So I wanted to explore the conflicting narratives about abortion in the US, and the underlying numbers fueling these conflicting headlines.
(This is just a first course to this research.)
So in one corner, here’s LifeNews.com on the subject:
Although Americans are in favor of overturning Roe and 14 recent polls show Americans are pro-life on abortion, abortion activists have engaged in violence, vandalism and heated protests in response to a leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court that overturns Roe v. Wade. They hope to somehow persuade one or more Supreme Court justices to change their mind.
Ah, cool, I follow. America is pro-life.
And in our other corner here’s NPR, a paragon of balance and objectivity. (Pretend that I typed that without laughing out loud to myself.)
Below, seven popular claims surrounding abortion get fact-checked.
Claim: There is big support for ending Roe in America.
6 in 10 U.S. adults (61%) say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases.
According to the Pew Research Center's polls, 37% of Americans want abortion illegal in all or most cases.
But an even bigger fraction — around 6 in 10 Americans — think abortion should be legal in all or most cases."
So now you’ve just been presented with two incompatible views of the country.
I think it would be worth our while to survey the specific numbers that these (and similar) headlines cite to construct these stories.
To be continued.