New poll: Support for use of violence to restore ‘right to abortion’ increases

Joe Bukuras   By Joe Bukuras for CNA

August 3, 2023 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 1 Print

 

A man wielding a machete is shown in security footage outside Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Sacramento, California, at 8:15 a.m. on July 8, 2022. / Credit: Courtesy of Alternatives Pregnancy Center

Boston, Mass., Aug 3, 2023 / 12:38 pm (CNA).

A new poll from the University of Chicago’s Project on Security and Threats has found that Americans’ support for violence to restore a federal right to abortion has grown significantly over the last six months.

The survey found that 12% of Americans agreed with the statement “The use of force is justified to restore the federal right to abortion.” That’s a sharp increase from the 8% who agreed with the statement in January.

The increase was most pronounced among self-described Democrats. About 8% of Democrats in January said they favored the use of violence to restore abortion rights, compared with 16% who agreed with the statement in June.

Independents’ support for violence to restore the federal right to abortion rose from 11% to 14% from January to June. Among Republicans, the number remained at 6%.

The new poll follows a year that saw a series of pro-abortion attacks against Catholic churches, pregnancy resource centers, and other pro-life institutions across the nation beginning in May 2022. The latest attack was on July 24 on a pregnancy center in Las Vegas.

The targeting of pro-life institutions began after a May 2022 draft opinion leak from the U.S. Supreme Court indicated that the justices were poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide.

The report, titled “Dangers to Democracy: Tracking Deep Distrust of Democratic Institutions, Conspiracy Beliefs, and Support for Political Violence Among Americans,” was conducted by the University of Chicago’s Chicago Project on Security and Threats and released July 10. The survey measured Americans’ views on whether violence is justified for various political ends.

The poll was conducted June 22–26 and had a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points, with a 95% confidence level among all adults 18 and over.

If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

About Catholic News Agency 12635 Articles
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

Related Articles

No Picture
News Briefs

Malawi legislature blocks debate of bill to expand grounds for abortion

March 23, 2021 CNA Daily News 0

Lilongwe, Malawi, Mar 23, 2021 / 08:01 pm (CNA).- Malawi’s National Assembly earlier this month declined to debate a bill that would expand the grounds for procuring an abortion.

The Nyasa Times reported that “almost all MPs shouted ‘No’” when it was suggested March 11 that the bill be debated.

The bill would permit abortion in circumstances of rape, incest, fatal fetal impairment, or when pregnancy endangers the mother’s physical or mental health. Abortion is currently criminalized in Malawi except in cases of saving the mother’s life.

Mathews Ngwale, an independent MP who aligns with the Democratic Party, introduced the bill. Ngwale is head of the Parliamentary Health Committee.

Father Henry Saindi, a spokesman for the Malawi bishops’ conference, told The Nation, a Blantyre daily, in September 2020, “I know they are trying to coin some phrases such as safe abortion, but what we are saying is that abortion is abortion. Regardless of how life came about, life is sacred…We say no to whatever is being proposed”.

The bill’s backers claim legal abortion will reduce maternal deaths, because fewer women would seek unsafe, criminalized abortions.

MP Nicholas Dausi said the bill should not even have been introduced, and that “women should not be allowed to kill.”

Several religious groups in addition to the Catholic Church are opposed to the bill, including Presbyterian and Evangelical ecclesial communities and the country’s Muslim Association.

Malawi has faced proposals to expand the grounds for abortion for several years.

In a 2016 pastoral statement, the nation’s bishops said: “In a country little by little marked by trends in the declining respect for human life, the Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. Our belief in the sanctity of human life and the inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all the principles of social teaching.”

“Through the agents of the culture of death, campaigning for abortion legislation, human life is under direct attack,” the bishops lamented. “In these circumstances, we wish to reaffirm that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every society is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.”


[…]

1 Comment

  1. Hmmmmm. It should be seen as violence to open hospitals based on superstitions rather than science-based medicine, and to let women die there every year while not even providing them with first line expected care or information about their condition and options? So who is supporting violence? Hi editors – I don’t wonder why you don’t have any published comments haha.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*