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“The biggest change the polling found was an uptick by 11 percentage points for Americans who believe abortion should be legal ‘in all cases’ to 27%. The remaining supporters, 36%, believe abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, which has come down from 45% since 2010.” - Christian Headlines

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Discussion

Thu, 07/11/19

The article makes clear that how the question is asked—does it refer to when the abortion occurs, etc..—makes a huge difference in the results. There is a huge noise generator on polls like this.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

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Fri, 07/12/19

Wish I had links, but I’m quite sure I’ve read very different results from different, still recent, surveys.

But part of it has to do with how results are packaged. You can lump the “should be legal under most circumstances” crowd in with the “all circumstances” crowd and get a big number, but what if you group the “not after first trimester” crowd and the “never” crowd… and throw in the “not during the third trimester” crowd. You then have a headline that says “xx% of Americans oppose abortion during some or all of pregnancy” (or, better, “xx% of Americans favor some restrictions on when abortions may be performed”) and it’s a big number.

So the questions spin it, but how the data is framed into headines spins it again.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

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