Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Sat, 29 Aug 1992 12:16:36 CDT
From:         "The Truth (some assembly required)" <T9AA@SDSUMUS.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Poll Time

>rtf:

>It depends on what you think might be inferred from "some" restrictions
>If you answer, "illegal all the time," it appears that you make no
>exception to save the mother's life--a rather extreme position.  One
>would expect to find a miniscule part of the population holding this
>view.

Like Op:Rescue.

>"For any reason," however, is also an *extreme* position, including
>sex selection, birth control--a position that has *never* appeared in
>such numbers before.

Correct. Sex selection strikes me as very eugenic, and I would not
support that. Of course, I still take the position that abortion
should be a choice, but a choice that is discussed.

>The GSS survey numbers averaged over 1972-1983 show these numbers:
>Abortion should be legal under:
>any circumstances             22%
>certain circumstances         68%
>no circumstances               9%

It seems to me that numbers averaged over such a large period of time
are not valid. Do you have those numbers on a year-by-year basis?

>Now, ten years later, we have a 49/38/10 situation.  Which means that
>there has been a massive shift into an extremist camp--and it wasn't
>the right to lifers.  Extremist anti-abortion opinion has increased
>only by 1 percent.  But extremist pro-abortion opinion has moved up
>*27* points (again, assuming we take the recent information to be
>valid.)

The numbers are 10-20 years later, not ten years later, but that is
a relatively minor point. And, I would still put myself in that
"pro-choice" extremist catagory.

>Both *any* reason and *no* reason were once considered problematic.
>Now it appears that a near-majority has accepted abortion even in
>situations for which we condemn other nations (such as sex-selection).

In personalities, I find many reasons for abortion to be problematic,
but in general, I feel that people can make decisions for themselves.

>Yes, there is a culture war.  It is never a good sign when a nation's
>people take extreme positions (whichever way they may fall).  That way
>lies both fascism and communism, in their purest forms.

I feel that "Anarchism," meaning personal control and personal
responsibility, is another extreme, an extreme of freedom. I think
that the Pro-Choice position is extremist in that way, the way that
anti-censorship people are extremist.

>If these numbers are accurate, we are in for a bloody civil war.
>And the economy will be nothing more than a blip on the radar screen
>of politics.

If these numbers are accurate, the "pure pro-lifers" are becoming an
extreme minority. (I would say "oppressed minority," but in my mind,
they are oppressors, not oppressed)

As a minority, they have the right to dislike abortion, the right to
try to change policy, but have little right to force their opinions
on others.

>--Missy P 2 B

Dave
t9aa@sdsumus.bitnet
Ask not what your government can do for you,
ask what it is doing to you.
              --Jerome Kingsbury

Disclaimer:  The opinions contained in this post are not the
opinions of the Administration, Faculty, or Student Body of
South Dakota State University.  Hell, they might not even
be mine.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU