Numerous media outlets are promoting a poll which found that a majority of Tennessee voters support the addition of “exceptions” to the state’s pro-life law. Yet very few outlets have acknowledged that this stance — of wanting abortion legal but heavily restricted — is in line with what most Americans want, and out of touch with what the abortion industry is promoting.
Earlier this year, Tennessee’s trigger law took effect, protecting preborn children from abortion. There are currently no exceptions in the law for rape or incest. Polling from Vanderbilt University was recently announced, which showed that most voters would prefer that these exceptions be included.
According to the poll, 75% of voters supported adding exceptions for rape and incest to the law. Tennessee lawmakers are already considering legislation to add these exceptions. “We’re looking at what exceptions might be appropriate,” State Senator Ferrell Haile told the Tennessee Lookout. “I just think that there’s a reason here that there might be a need for some exceptions on this.”
But according to the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, there is no need to intentionally kill a child to save the mother’s life:
There is a night and day difference between induced abortion and separating a mother and her unborn child for the purposes of saving a mother’s life (preterm parturition). There are times when separating the mother and her unborn child is necessary to save the life of the mother, even if the unborn child is too premature to live. In those tragic cases, if possible the life of the baby will be attempted to be preserved, and if not possible, the body of the unborn child is treated with respect, recognizing the humanity of the life which is lost in the separation. In contrast, the purpose of an induced abortion is to produce a dead baby.
And a recent Live Action News article regarding OBGYN Dr. Jeffrey Wright’s guidance published in Issues in Law and Medicine noted (emphasis added):
Wright goes on to state that procedures used to treat ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages (when the preborn child has already died), and anembryonic pregnancies (when an embryo never develops), have not typically ever been considered to be abortions.
Additionally, although miscarriage or fetal death may sometimes result as a complication of medical treatments for some maternal health conditions, this is an unintended consequence, and again, is not considered an abortion.
“Fetal death can sometimes occur as a complication of an intrauterine surgical procedure to treat a single fetus or to treat an abnormality such as twin to twin transfusion syndrome,” Wright adds. “Again, those occurrences are not viewed as abortions.”
Intent matters — and the intent in such cases is to medically treat the human beings involved, not to kill them.
John Geer, dean of Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science and co-director of the poll, tried to argue that this proves people do not support pro-life laws. “A lot of what is going on, I think, is that legislators are reacting to where the competition lies,” he said to ABC News. “And because of the redistricting and because Tennessee is such a Republican state, their main threat is from their flank, not from the center. Consequently, they are prepared to support these kinds of laws, even though they know that probably the broader public is not necessarily in support of them.”
Yet this polling is not unusual, nor does it insinuate that Americans widely support unlimited legal abortion.
Repeatedly, polling has found that Americans want abortion to be heavily restricted. One recent poll found that a candidate who favors a pro-life law with exceptions only for rape, incest, and to save the mother’s life fares better politically than a candidate who favors legal abortion without any limits. Another poll, this one in South Dakota, found that voters wanted heavy restrictions on abortion. Still another poll found that Americans want abortion restricted past the first trimester — and even in the first trimester do not want it to be legal under all circumstances. Polling has found similar outlooks even in pro-abortion states like California.
While the abortion industry and the politicians supporting it attempt to promote legal, taxpayer-funded abortion, available at any time for any reason, this is a deeply unpopular opinion among Americans. The Tennessee poll just confirms yet again what we already know: Americans only support abortion under very limited circumstances.
