The latest poll, conducted by the Associated Press (AP) and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), shows that 73% of Americans want limits on abortion, and nearly half (45%) believe it should be banned at 15 weeks into the pregnancy. Only 14% think abortion should always be legal.
"15 weeks is about the time we start seeing studies showing that babies can feel pain at that stage of pregnancy," notes Laura Echevarria of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). "What most people don't realize is that about 95% of all abortions occur before 15 weeks. About half of all abortions occur before six weeks of pregnancy."
Meanwhile, Biden and his fellow Democrats maintain that voters want abortions for any reason up to birth, even though, as LifeNews.com points out, 58% of those polled disapprove of the president's abortion policy. Still, "Most Americans support legal abortion with some restrictions," is the AP's own takeaway.
"They've been pushing a lot of the same misinformation that's out there, and so we're seeing the results of that," Echevarria says. "But despite all of that misinformation, once you really ask people what they truly think about the abortion issue, you start seeing these results. So, the Associated Press poll bears out what happens when people learn the truth about abortion."
She advises Washington to stop promoting and pushing unfettered abortion, because the reality is people do not support it.
Additional Research
New information has surfaced that gives women another reason to think twice before going through with an abortion.
Bearing in mind that aborting a child, especially the first pregnancy, leaves a woman ripe for psychological difficulties, the Charlotte Lozier Institute conducted a peer-reviewed study of data from over 4,800 Medicaid claims over 17 years to find out about mental health treatments for women who aborted and those who had a live birth.
Compared to women whose first pregnancy was a birth, higher rates of mental health services were observed for women whose first pregnancy was an abortion in three categories:
-Outpatient visits – 3.4x more likely to increase.
-Inpatient hospital admissions – 5.7x more likely to increase.
-Days of hospital stay – 19.6x more likely to increase.
"After the first pregnancy, mental health treatment increased for both groups -- both women who had births and the women who had abortions," spokeswoman Tessa Longbons relays. "But the increase was much larger for the abortion group."
Moreover, those women were less likely to have a prior history of mental health service utilization, suggesting that the abortion contributes to the difference.
So Longbons thinks pregnant women should be aware of that.
"For women who are trying to make that decision about that first pregnancy, they need to know all of the facts," she submits. "Obviously, abortion ends the unborn baby's life, but it can also harm the mother, too. Women need to know that there's real support and real options available."
Rachel's Vineyard and Hope Clinic for Women are just two examples of organizations that specifically help women who develop problems after an abortion.
