Polls only count when they support what one believes

The following poll results were recorded on the Angus Reid Global Monitor site on June 21/08:

Half of adults in Canada believe pregnancy termination on demand should continue to be allowed in the country, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 49 per cent of respondents think abortion should be legal under any circumstances.

Conversely, 42 per cent of respondents would allow the procedure only under certain circumstances, while five per cent would make abortion illegal in all circumstances.

Then only three days later, we get these results regarding M.P. Ken Epp's private member's bill, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act. The source again is that respected Canadian polling firm, Angus Reid:

Bill C-484, an act to amend the Criminal Code— also known as the Unborn Victims of Crime Act— was introduced by Ken Epp (Conservative, Edmonton-Sherwood Park, Alta.) in November 2007. The bill seeks to amend the Criminal Code to make it an offence to injure, cause the death of, or attempt to cause the death of a child before or during its birth while committing, or attempting to commit, an offence against the mother. The bill does not apply to consensual abortion or any act or omission by the mother of the child.

Two-thirds of respondents (68%) would like their Member of Parliament to vote in favour of this bill, while 13 per cent are opposed and 18 per cent are not sure. Atlantic Canada (80%) and Alberta (77%) hold the highest levels of support for the bill, while Quebecers (54%) are less enthusiastic.

One obvious conclusion that can be drawn from this is that most of the support for Mr. Epp's bill comes from pro-choice women and men, with a majority in every province answering in the affirmative. They apparently do not see it as a back door way of re-criminalizing abortion, nor do they see it as compromising women's rights.

But while the usual pro-choice spokespeople quoted by the media will make much of the first poll above, they will all ignore the second one. Despite all of their efforts to do so, they have not convinced their sisters that their views of reproductive freedom are fully true. Yet they will ignore the polls and go on insisting that they are acting in the interests of all women, including the majority who disagree with them.

Which is it--arrogance, cynicism, or obliviousness?

going, going...........

....and nearly gone. As YMFR know, I'm a consultant and have been doing work for Abbotsford Right to Life for the past year. As Director of Education I have been involved in putting on public lectures, organizing youth events, and otherwise meeting our mandate as a government-registered, non-profit educational society. In addition, I began blogging on life issues as a means of educating myself on the perspectives of the various world views that underlie the pro-life/pro-choice/pro-abortion debate.

But my contract with Abbotsford Right to Life is just about over. I'll be moving on at the end of July. New contracts will mean different focuses (foci?), leaving no time for blogging.

My academic style, consisting of longer thought pieces and essays, certainly isn't the norm among bloggers in this area of human interest. That may have to do with my objective in blogging in the first place, versus the goals of others. My primary aim is to explore, discuss, float trial balloons, find spokespeople from atypical backgrounds to state their case--all of the things that we do in the classroom and in our research. No one has the corner on insight and discernment.

Two things I have learned in particular:
1. I am completely at odds morally with the pro-choice spokespeople, and their clones in Parliament, when it comes to the issue of the personhood of the fetus. God help us that we have made the state the final arbiter on who is human or when life begins. That women, 1st Nations people, and African-Canadians would countenance this for a moment only shows that if we don't learn from the mistakes of history, we are doomed to repeat them.
2. I am largely at odds strategically with the pro-life spokespeople whose focus on fetal rights has created more problems than it has solved.

Regular readers know that I have blogged extensively on both of these points in the past. In my few remaining weeks I will return to them again before the big sign off at the end of July.