By Dave Andrusko
Sometimes opinion polls are what they are—clear, unambiguous, and straightforward. That is rarely the case when the topic is abortion.
Here’s an example from Rhrealitycheck.org, a pro-abortion blog. A recent post took pro-life Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to task for saying (according to Rhrealitycheck.org), “I think the most pro-life group in America is the Hispanic community,” Graham claimed. “Social conservatism is not our problem.”
To which the author bashed Sen. Graham, who is also a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, for misstating abortion opinion among Hispanics. One of the sets of figures the site uses is a 2014 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center. What does that poll say and what is omitted or confusing?
Let’s start with Hispanics who are registered voters.
First the categories are not at all helpful. Abortion should be legal in all/most cases (48%) —which includes those who say abortion should never be restricted (21%) or with some restrictions (28%).
This is contrasted with those who say abortion should be illegal in all/most cases (44%)—which includes those who say abortion should never be legal (14%) and those who say there should be “some allowances”(29%).
But what does “some restrictions” mean? What does “some allowances” mean?
However if you ask all Hispanics (registered voters and those who are not), you find—even with the same murky categories—that “51% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, including 20% who think abortion should never be allowed,” according to Pew.
In addition, note this: “On the issue of abortion, Hispanics overall have long been more likely to say it should be illegal in all or most cases,” Pew adds. “Over the last decade, this view has not changed much among all Hispanics, with between 51% and 57% saying abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.”
What about younger Hispanics? Earlier this year, we read, “A survey of adults ages 18 to 35 released Friday by the Public Religion Research Institute found 54 percent of Latino millennials said abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.”