Respected poll shows more Americans rejecting "right" to abortion in 2009

Signs of hope - a continued trend towards the pro-life position in our country - public support for abortion has dropped 11% since the same time last year:

Polls conducted in 2009 have found fewer Americans expressing support for abortion than in previous years. In Pew Research Center polls in 2007 and 2008, supporters of legal abortion clearly outnumbered opponents; now Americans are evenly divided on the question, and there have been modest increases in the numbers who favor reducing abortions or making them harder to obtain. Less support for abortion is evident among most demographic and political groups.

The latest Pew Research Center survey also reveals that the abortion debate has receded in importance, especially among liberals. At the same time, opposition to abortion has grown more firm among conservatives, who have become less supportive of finding a middle ground on the issue and more certain of the correctness of their own views on abortion. (Pew Forum)

The Obama tie-in:

The timing of this shift in attitudes on abortion suggests it could be connected to Obama's election. The decline in support for legal abortion first appeared in polls in the spring of 2009. Overall, roughly three-in-ten (29%) think Obama will handle the abortion issue about right as president. One-in-five Americans (19%) worry that Obama will go too far in supporting abortion rights, while very few (4%) express the opposite concern that Obama will not go far enough to support abortion rights.

Opposition to abortion remains connected to how serious people take their faith:

"...most people who regularly attend religious services continue to come down in opposition to abortion, while the large majority of those who rarely or never attend religious services still support legal abortion."

By the way, "regularly attend" typically translates in these polls to "attends weekly." In other words, people who merely attend Mass or Christian services *once* a week are far more likely to be pro-life.

Some amazing points are also made:

The poll finds that four-in-ten Americans are unaware of Obama's position on the abortion issue. Conservative Republicans, however, are more likely than any other group to know Obama's position, with 75% correctly identifying him as "pro-choice" rather than "pro-life."

It's stunning to me that 40% of Americans don't even know about Obama's position on abortion, and that 25% of Republicans evidently don't know he is pro-abortion.

Clearly, those of us in the pro-life movement have a great opportunity here for continuing to educate our fellow Americans about the issue of abortion, and Obama's radical position on it.

US Map: where be the Catholics?

They be here....


Via Michael Paulson's Articles of Faith. The Southeast is mostly protestant. Mormonism is focused in Utah, and atheists hug the upper Northwest and Northeast. Such a cold, remote way of life. ;)

Statistics: Pro-Life States Have Lower Abortion Rates

If you have a culture of life, less babies die:

It seems, however, that people do practice what they preach. For each increase of about 10 percent in the number of residents who identify themselves as pro-life, the percentage of pregnancies ending in abortion is reduced by about 5 percent.

Also important to note, states with more ready access to abortion ... have more abortions:

"According to the Guttmacher Institute, approximately one-third of American women live in a county where there is no abortion provider. There is a very strong (inverse) relationship, additionally, between having access to an abortion provider in one's county, and the pro-life leanings of that state."

Much more at FiveThirtyEight.com.

Sometimes its easier to convince people about common sense when you can show them the numbers.

Poll: Approval of ND's Obama invite inversely proportional to Mass attendance

Props to the Pew Forum for taking up this issue (my underlining):

Most Catholics who have heard about the issue support the University of Notre Dame's decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak and receive an honorary degree at its May 17 commencement, even though he supports abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research. But a new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life also finds a deep division on this issue between the most-observant Catholics and those who are less observant, as defined by frequency of worship service attendance.

"...Regular church attenders also express much higher levels of disapproval of Obama's visit to Notre Dame. Among white Catholics who attend church at least once a week, a plurality (45%) say it was wrong for Notre Dame to invite Obama, while the majority of less-observant Catholics (56%) take the opposite view, saying Notre Dame was right to invite him."

[Full polling and analysis here.]

Now, of course, weekly Mass attendance (i.e., Sunday Mass attendance) is compulsory for Catholics. That means people who don't attend Sunday Mass aren't even practicing the basics of their faith. Catholics who are maintaining the minimum standards of living their Catholic faith disapprove of the decision (as a plurality).

Isn't it odd that Fr. Jenkin's invitation corresponds more with Catholics who are not going to Mass on Sunday on a regular basis than those who are? Isn't it strange that Catholics who don't make it a priority to receive Jesus are fine with Notre Dame making it a priority to receive Obama? And finally, why can almost 1 in 4 Catholics who don't even attend Sunday Mass regularly see something wrong with an invitation that the supposed flag-ship of American Catholic education is blind to?

Pew Center: Only 46% of Americans believe abortion should be legal

A new poll by the Pew Research Center released today:

The proportion saying that abortion should be legal in all or most cases has declined to 46% from 54% last August. The decline in support for legal abortion has come entirely in the share saying abortion should be legal in most cases (from 37% to 28%); 18% say abortion should be legal in all cases, which is virtually unchanged from last August (17%). Currently, 44% say abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all cases (16%), up slightly since last August (41%).

What has caused the change? My guess: people who have been made aware of what partial birth abortion is cannot tolerate it. I'd be interesting to see how many people learned about partial birth abortion during the election cycle when pro-life groups began bringing up the point that Obama supports it. There still remains a small minority (18%) who are abortion absolutists, and a small minority (16%) who are completely pro-life. But now only 28% of people say abortion should be legal in "most cases" - down from 37%! What do you think has caused this change?

Do note this: the poll claims 46% of Americans support abortion in some or all cases, while 44% oppose it in some or all cases. This means that the claim "American is a pro-choice country" is simply false. America is a deeply-divided country about this issue. Within the margin of error, in fact. Belief in abortion is far from "common" sense. It is not commonly held. This means that Obama's position on abortion only identifies him with 18% of the American people.

Pew has more details on the poll here, once you scroll down the page.

{update: Life News tells us these are the lowest abortion support stats in 15 years.}

Picture: AmP's 2,000,000th Visit!

AmP's 2,000,000th visit, at 12:34PM EST, is a government employee in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil:

(click image for full-size.)

Fitting that this individual should hail from the world's most populated Catholic country!

AmP Places in Top 20 of Faith Blogging's Top Christian blogs

Actually, 20th place exactly.

Among Catholic blogs, The Anchoress and What Does the Prayer Really Say are ahead. Both are excellent blogs.

The (unscientific) algorithm Faith Blogging used looks at Compete.com, Alexa ranking, Technorati ranking and Google Reader subscribers. AmP has 1300+ GoogleReader subscribers, behind WDTPRS and ahead of TheAnchoress. I'm dissapointed by AmP's showings in the other three benchmarks, because frankly their numbers seriously underestimate my readership (or are simply outdated - things have been speeding up).

One intangible FaithBlogging considered was "reputation". That's such a hard thing to measure in the blogosphere, especially considering the widely different purposes our blogs serve and goals they pursue. Oh well.

For the record, Whispers in the Loggia should also be on this list. It's still way important, like it or not.

Do check out the other blogs on the list.

Latest numbers: McCain back up among Catholics

Signs of hope?

Two weeks ago McCain and Obama were nearly tied for the Catholic vote 42%-43% with 15% undecided.

A week ago Obama support among Catholics peaked at 49%-38% with 12% undecided.

Today, Catholics have flipped back to McCain 40-47% and 13% undecided.

Obama polls extraordinarily high among those who report "no" religion (74%) and Jewish (69%), he leads McCain in "Other Christian" (47%-42%) but falls behind among "other" religion (40%-52%) and Protestants (40%-53%).

Yes, it appears McCain continues to do less well among Catholics than Protestants (which presumably includes evangelicals).

But then again, this is just polling.

Million dollar question: does this recent shift have anything to do with the fact that over 100 bishops have published statements arguing for the priority of life issues?

update: if you want a taste for what these bishops are saying, read an excerpt from this one:

"In the U.S. Bishops' document, Faithful Citizenship, there is a section which addresses whether it might ever be morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who supports and intrinsic evil, such as abortion – even when the voter does not agree with the candidate's position on that evil. In response, the Bishops note that it might be possible if another intrinsic evil outweighs the evil of abortion.

While this is sound moral guidance, I ask you, are there truly any grave moral and proportionate reasons, singularly or taken together, that outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by legal abortion each year?

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver puts it in perspective when he says: “What is a proportionate reason when it comes to abortion? It's the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them in the next life – which we certainly will. If we're confident that these victims will accept our motives, then we can proceed." - Bishop James Johnston of Sprinfield-Cape Girardeau

And this statement was heard from the pulpit of every Mass this weekend. That has to have an effect.

Well....

Never trust a blogger when he says "this will be my last post..."

Anyway, what Drudge described as the "Most accurate pollster in 2004 election" is today showing Obama 44.8%, McCain 43.7%, Not Sure 11.6%...

McCain has cut into Obama's lead for a second day and is now just 1.1 points behind. The spread was 3.7 Wednesday and 6.0 Tuesday. The Republican is making headway with middle- and working- class voters, and has surged 10 points in two days among those earning between $30,000 and $75,000. He has also gone from an 11-point deficit to a 9-point lead among Catholics.

Interesting. {update: link fixed - thanks Edward!}

update: are people listening?

Claim: 1-in-4 Bishops Promote "single issue voting"

Writing for the UK Tablet, Rocco does his homework, crunches the numbers, and comes up with this:

A quarter of America's bishops have said that the most important issue for voters in the forthcoming presidential election is abortion - comments that may help boost the fortunes of Republican candidate John McCain.

Some 50 out of the nation's 197 active bishops have published articles or given interviews during the run-up up to the election urging abortion as the key issue on which voters should decide which way to vote.

Of course, "single issue voting" is a caricature of what these bishops are teaching. They are actually defending the centrality of certain issues against those who would subjectively marginalize them. And so, in a very real way, the bishops are promoting "all issue voting", at least when compared to the alternative. We must always guard against letting the other side claim this truth as their own.

But let's get back to the really amazing statistic: over 1-in-4 active bishops have said this!

Rocco, whose comprehensiveness is to be trusted, can in fact only find two bishops who apparently argue the alternative "there's alot of issues out there" approach. So by my count, the bishops split like this:

• Abortion is the key issue: 50+
• Abortion is one issue among many: 2
• No comment (yet): 145

So what is the correct conclusion? Well, I would say it can no longer be claimed that the number of bishops who are concerned about the dismissal of abortion (and other fundamental life issues) constitute a slim minority - in fact, they are now a significant voice in the American hierarchy.

Some people, however, are obviously still living in serious denial. Robert Kaiser writing for the National Catholic Reporter today is a sterling example of the inability to admit the tide has turned. He begins:

"I really resent the few U.S. bishops who are now engaged in a campaign to swing the election for John McCain -- as they did for George W. Bush in 2004."

And let me just stop him right there, because by Rocco's count (and with the confirmation of the reporting I have done over the past months), Kaiser actually "resents" about 1-in-4 American bishops, if he resents those bishops who teach publicly that abortion is the key issue for Catholics when voting.

So, who should feel lonely now?

Top myths about abortion dispelled on USCCB website

Spread this news. Richard M. Doerflinger has published a concice essay on the USCCB website asking the question "What Reduces Abortions?"

His answers are startling and contradict claims spread by pro-Obama catholics. Consider (underlining mine):

Sometimes election years produce more policy myths than good ideas. This year one myth is about abortion. It goes like this: The Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision is here to stay, and that's fine because laws against abortion don't reduce abortions much anyway. Rather, "support for women and families" will greatly reduce abortions, without changing the law or continuing a "divisive" abortion debate.

Various false claims are used to bolster this myth. It is said that over three-quarters of women having abortions cite expense as the most important factor in their decision. Actually the figure is less than one-fourth, 23%. It is said that abortion rates declined dramatically (30%) during the Clinton years, but the decline stopped under the ostensibly pro-life Bush administration. Actually the abortion rate has dropped 30% from 1981 to 2005; the decline started 12 years before Clinton took office, and has continued fairly steadily to the present day.

More myths (underlining again mine):

The steepest decline is among minors. Is it plausible that economic factors reduced abortions for teens but not their older sisters, or their mothers who support them?

The reality is this: In 1980 the Supreme Court upheld the Hyde amendment, and federally funded abortions went from 300,000 a year to nearly zero. With its decisions in Webster (1989) and Casey (1992), the Court began to uphold other abortion laws previously invalidated under Roe. States passed hundreds of modest but effective laws: bans on use of public funds and facilities; informed consent laws; parental involvement when minors seek abortion; etc. Dr. Michael New's rigorous research has shown that these laws significantly reduce abortions. In the 1990s, debate on partial-birth abortion - kept in the public eye, ironically, by President Clinton's repeated vetoes of a ban on this grisly late-term procedure - alerted many Americans to the violence of abortion and shifted public attitudes in a pro-life direction, just as growing concern over AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases was giving new force to the abstinence message for teens. Now the Court has upheld a partial-birth abortion ban, and signaled that other laws to save unborn children and their mothers from the horrors of abortion may be valid. If Roe is reversed outright, that will allow more laws that can further reduce abortions.

By contrast, a pending federal "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA) would knock down current laws reducing abortions, and require public programs for pregnant women to fund abortion. No one supporting that bill can claim to favor reducing abortions.

Conclusion:

Many women are pressured toward abortion, and they need our help. The pressures are partly, but only partly, economic in nature. Women are influenced by husbands, boyfriends, parents and friends, and by a culture and legal system that tells them the child they carry has no rights and is of no consequence. Law cannot solve all problems, but it can tell us which solutions are unacceptable - and today Roe still teaches that killing the unborn child is an acceptable solution, even a "right." Without ever forgetting the need to support pregnant women and their families, that tragic and unjust error must be corrected if we are to build a society that respects all human life.

This essay is significant for its publication on the USCCB website, and its timing - days after the US Bishops' statement setting the record straight on Roe v. Wade and other common errors.

This may feel a little bit like throwing sandbags on a broken dike, but that's what we are called to do. So roll up your sleeves and get to work. Dikes don't repair themselves.

New polling claims Younger Christians becoming more liberal

I received an initiation to participate in a conference call yesterday explaining the results of new polling data acquired by the "progressive" religions group Faith in Public Life (founded after the '04 elections), on young evangelicals and Catholics. Unfortunately prior duties prevented me from participating.

The results are online here (PDF).

I have something to say in response to each one of their conclusions.

But, because this is a topic very close to myself and one of the ongoing goals of AmP (to provide news, quality commentary and content for young Catholics living in America), I'll probably spend a bit more time on this report and try to get something on it published (you'll hear about that when it happens).

In the meantime, what are your observations?

Related previous AmP topics:

• Commentary: If Liberal Catholicism is Dead, then the Youth Killed It (May 7)
• Report: "Younger Catholics Becoming Increasingly Liberal, Studies Show" (February 17)
• Cardinal Pell on the signs of hope among young conservative Catholics (May 2006)

Poll: Catholics and the 2008 Presidential Election

(This poll was conducted pre-Palin:)

These are the head-to-head ballot questions"

• Among religiously-active Catholics likely to vote, McCain has 49%, Obama has 42%, 9% are undecided. Bush ultimately won this cohort in 2004 56%-43%.
  Among Evangelical or Born-Again Christians likely to vote, McCain leads Obama 61% - 34%, with 5% undecided. Bush won this cohort in 2004 66% - 32%.
• While McCain currently edges out Obama with religiously active Catholics, he is still well short of the mark accomplished by Bush in 2004. McCain’s margin among Evangelical or Born-Again Christians is still significant if a bit lower than Bush’s final totals.

There are four issues which have the potential to significantly impact the current voting intentions of voters of faith. [Read them here.]

Thanks, Papa!

Needless to say, Pope Benedict XVI's visit was a huge shot in the arm for AmP's readership numbers. The blog was featured on the Today Show and MSNBC.com, and I was able to do interviews with CNN, BBC World News and Our Sunday Visitor. AmP was also recommended as a "go to" blog for papal coverage by countless blogs and websites.

Thank you for the trust.

Hopefully people were able to find out more about our beloved Holy Father. After all, he's why I'm here.

As a result of all this exposure, some AmP numbers for you, in case you find these things interesting:

• Bloglines subscribers are up to 160.
• Almost 400 subscribers through Google Reader.
• Over 23,000 picture views recorded on Flickr.
• AmP's YouTube videos have been watched almost 17,000 times, with 46 subscribers.
• The official AmP Facebook page has almost 350 members now.
• In the last week, well over 40,000 visits and 100,000 pages viewed.

... and a couple folks even dropped a little something in the Paypal donation box. Thank you!

And please remember, following Pope Benedict XVI is a year-round gig around here - so stick around!

Another AmP milestone

(Wrote this when it happened, but forgot to post it!)

February 29th, at 2:53:03 someone from Lake Jackson, TX became the 750,000th AmP Sitemeter visitor.

He or she spent 39 seconds on the blog, and found this post of particular interest.

SiteMeter does not count visits to the blog from 3rd-party readers and RSS feeds. The background comprehensive website statistics currently clock AmP at roughly 1.5 million visits to date.

Without pausing for breath, on to the next 750,000!

Pew Forum presents picture of fluid U.S. religious affiliation

Allright, back to things more properly AmericanPapist.

This article is quickly making the rounds (Time Mag's version here, AssociatedPress here):

More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The report, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.

Infographic:

Our numbers:

The percentage of Catholics in the American population has held steady for decades at about 25 percent. But that masks a precipitous decline in native-born Catholics. The proportion has been bolstered by the large influx of Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America, the survey found.

The Catholic Church has lost more adherents than any other group: about one-third of respondents raised Catholic said they no longer identified as such. Based on the data, the survey showed, “this means that roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics.”

... which means we have plenty of work to do.

Get the original report here at the Pew Forum. They have a summary with links here.

To add a little context, the UK Times reports that "Over half of Britons claim no religion."

I'll save my comments until I have some time to wade through the data.

update: In the meantime, see what Amy has to say, CNA, and BettNet.

video: "Pew Forum Director Luis Lugo gives an overview of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey and talks about some of its key findings" (source):

Entrance Poll: Romney & McCain split Catholic vote in MI

CNN's exaustive entrance poll reveals that Catholics who voted in the GOP Michgin primary chose:

• Romney, 38%
• McCain, 36%
• Huckabee, 8%
• Guiliani, 7%
• Paul, 4%
• Thompson, 4%

By comparison, here are the over-all numbers:

• Romney, 39%
• McCain, 30%
• Huckabee, 16%
• Paul, 6%
• Thompson, 4%
• Guiliani, 3%

From these statistics, one can roughly observe that McCain overperformed among Catholics somewhat, as did Guiliani, while Huckabee underperformed, and so did Paul.

Far MORE than 1/3 of Catholics believe in the Real Presence

Or so a new report from The National Catholic Reporter (yes, yes, I know...) concludes:

"81 percent say that “belief that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist” is essential in their understanding of the Catholic faith. Keep in mind that the survey is of a cross section of the 65 million Catholics in the U.S. (although Latinos are greatly underrepresented). Among the more highly committed Catholics, it is reasonable to assume that belief in the Real Presence is considerably higher than 81 percent. This is worth keeping in mind because some years ago a clumsily worded question in a survey came up with the conclusion that only one third of Catholics believed in the Real Presence, and that “finding” still crops up in discussions on the state of Catholicism. Among active Catholics, belief in the Real Presence, as also in the Incarnation, the Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection of Jesus, edges up toward unanimity."

[Read more at FirstThings.]

Ph/t: Jimmy Akin.

October was a good month for AmP. (Thank You!)

October was a very good month for AmP, assisted in part by my inclusion in the 2007 Blogging Scholarship Award contest as well as the publication of several lengthy posts that were picked-up across the blogosophere on the topics of Plan B in Connecticut, Abp. Niederauer giving Communion to homosexual activists as well as my advance review of the new pro-life movie Bella. Your comments, emails and news tips have been invaluable.

A special welcome for anyone who has newly subscribed to AmP, and renewed thanks to the regulars.

November promises to be another exciting time frame, with the meeting of the U.S. Bishops mid-month, and the Consistory of Cardinals at the very end, as well as ongoing additions to my series of essays on contemporary issues in bioethics (and of course, the occasional PPOTD). In addition, I have several AmP exclusive stories in various stages of composition. A site redesign might even happen, who knows? So crank up the Habemus Papam song, brew some tea or coffee for your favorite Cardinal Benedict Fanclub mug, and stay tuned! - Thomas

AmP's 2000th post!

Even my rudimentary math skills are functional enough to tell me that averages to a little over 250 visits-per-post! (okay, I had to use a calculator.)

And since sitemeter doesn't count readers who access AmP's content through RSS readers, bloglines, feedburner or the like, the actual sitewide statistics count well over a million visits.

Nonetheless, I think it's a good measure of the continuing health of the blog that I have so many other stories I'm working on currently that I don't have the luxury of taking the time to dwell upon this milestone.

To the folks who have just stumbled across this papist's ponderings for the first time today, and to those loyal friends who have been here from the beginning, my humble thanks!

Now, on to the next story....

AmP statistics, visitor trends, and a special note to my readers.

This is an impromptu state-of-the-amercianpapist-union address, beginning with a graphic that shows the place of origin for the last 100 visitors to these pages:

*Almost* every continent is represented in this snapshot. I do spot visitors from South Africa occasionally, once in a great while from Russia or India. I hope to see an increase in South American visitors this week. Australian readers make up a surprising number of viewers (3rd most, behind Canada), so good for the Aussies!

Other notables this week include Israel (8th), Hong Kong (13th), China (14th) and South Africa (22nd). The coveted "vatican.va" destination IP I see once in a great while, more often I think they must get their internet access from Rome, Lazio. I doubt readers near the poles would show up, but that leaves no excuse for Alaska.

Visitors from search engines comprise about 10% (oddly enough, this old post draws many visitors), links from other blogs 15% or so, the rest from bookmarks and RSS aggregators like Google Reader, Bloglines, etc.

The record for number of visitors in a month I keep to myself, but so far I'm on track to beat it this month.

Sitemeter, I realize, currently has total visits just over 400k. I'm not sure if that's everyone, however, because my webhost (which counts RSS aggregators and the rest of the site) reads over 750k - that's over 300GB of data!

All this from almost 1,750 separate blog posts and countless, countless hours of blogging since I started writing last January.

But the unmeasurable quotient is you, my wonderful readers, who make AmericanPapist worthwhile and a joy.

I've especially appreciated the many kind notes of encouragement, the numerous tips, pictures, links and gifts, the invitations to Catholic events, the votes in web awards (such as this year's CBA), and - perhaps most of all - the many times that people have come up to me in real life having recognized me through my blog. Indeed, meeting my readers has been a delightful way to put a human face and a personal dimension to all the time I've spent at home or in computer labs, libraries, and on the road cobbling together my coverage.

So, in short: Thank you, my papist friends! Here's to many more years together!

-AMDG.-