A battle between liberals?
Steinfels, Peter
IS IT POSSIBLE that the abortion struggle is really one between two left-of-center groups? The very idea clashes with all our images of pro-life and pro-choice opposition, with all the impressions...
...in fact, statistically significant...
...A measure of support for civil liberties, based on answers to fifteen questions, went: pro-choicers...
...On all ten of the questions, the pro-lifers' responses were more conservative-just as our stereotypes would lead us to expect...
...general public, 57 percent...
...That was on the right-to-lifers' low support for government reduction of income differences...
...None of this means that there arc not deep cultural or moral differences between pro-life and pro-choice forces, divisions going beyond or underlying the immediate conflict over abortion...
...general public, 54 percent...
...Like other investigators, he has found a correlation between opposition to abortion and a cluster of "family" values, including approval of larger families and a more traditional outlook on sexual morality...
...On two other questions, concerning euthanasia and suicide, neither of them outstanding political issues, the pro-lifers were definitely more conservative than the public but held the arguably "pro-life" position...
...Mure recently, Granberg has turned from analyzing attitudes of the general population to studying those of pro-life and pro-choice activists...
...If the righl-to-lifcrs end up in effective political alliance with conservatives or even end up thinking of themselves as conservatives or certainly not liberals (which is, in fact, what happens), perhaps the problem is not be found in their political beliefs but in the inhospitable climate of liberalism...
...Many readers of that article may want to challenge Gran-berg's interpretations...
...77 percent in favor...
...on using military force to assure vital resources like oil: pro-lifers in opposition...
...He also found that acceptance of abortion correlated with a higher concern for civil liberties, while pro and con positions on abortion were strongly related to pro and con positions on the'' life'' issues of euthanasia and suicide...
...But if one defines conservative and liberal, right and left, by concrete political questions, then one discovers that this is a deep division on the left-a conflict between a group that is decidedly liberal or left (pro-choice) and a group that is moderately liberal (pro-life...
...Granberg considered the more conservative position to be the more "pro-life" one...
...71 percent...
...No real surprises, so far...
...The very idea clashes with all our images of pro-life and pro-choice opposition, with all the impressions given in media reports and editorial columns...
...On two of these questions (concerning euthanasia and suicide...
...On two more questions (concerning motorcycle helmets and the death penalty), the slight recorded difference between the groups was not...
...On three more questions, the pro-lifers were slightly to the right of the average (gun control), slightly to the left (55-mph), or in exact agreement (decrease in military spending...
...In June 1980, he surveyed about nine hundred members of the National Right to Life Committee and ihe National Abortion Rights Action League...
...general public, 17 percent...
...And yet, after seeing data collected by Donald Granberg, a sociologist at the University of Missouri...
...For some years, Granberg has been studying the relation of abortion attitudes to positions on other topics...
...On two of the remaining six questions, pro-lifers were more conservative than the national average-only slightly on gun control (63 percent in favor compared to a national average of 69 percent) and more distinctly on the issue of government action to reduce income differences (26 percent supporting such action to 44 percent of the general public...
...Pro-choice activists were found to be more supportive than pro-life ones of civil liberties...
...At least it bears thinking about...
...72 percent...
...92 percent...
...And on the remaining four questions pro-lifers are either in agreement with the general public (13 percent of both favor decreased military spending, 77 percent of the pro-lifers support the 55-mph speed limit and 76 percent of the public), or are to the left of the general public (on requiring scat belts: pro-lifers...
...But pro-life actives were still found to be more liberal on civil-liberties questions than the average American...
...Both groups-and this is what first stirred my curiosity-wefe dramatically more liberal on these issues than the general public-e.g., twice as opposed to capital punishment...
...PETER STEINFELSSTEINFELS...
...This was as expected...
...Finally, on four questions (military force, seat belts, motorcycle helmets, and capital punishment), the pro-lifers were far more liberal than the average American...
...pro-lifers...
...In a forthcoming article in the Christian Century, Granberg discusses what the answer to ten of his questions suggest about the degree to which the contending groups are committed to some "overarching "pro-life" philosophy...
...Another of Granberg's findings, although not included in the Christian Century article, reinforces this pattern...
...But his data are fascinating...
...in sum, on only one out often questions were the pro-life activists distinctly to the right of the average American in a way that a liberal could argue was "anti-life...
...I think we should at least consider the possibility...
Vol. 108 • November 1981 • No. 21
