Rasmussen: Half of all Likely Voters Approve decision to dump Roe

By Rubashov

A fresh poll out Tuesday reports that “even though more voters identify as pro-choice than pro-life, fully half of them approve of the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.” That’s remarkable.

The poll – a Rasmussen national telephone and online survey – finds that 50 percent of likely voters in the United States approve of the Supreme Court abortion ruling, including 38 percent who strongly approve of the decision. 45 percent disapprove of the Supreme Court’s ruling, including 38 percent who strongly disapprove. The ruling allows each state to determine its own laws regarding abortion.

The poll asked three questions:

1) Generally speaking, on the issue of abortion, do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life?

2) The Supreme Court recently overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, so that each state can now determine its own laws regarding abortion. Do you approve or disapprove of the court overturning Roe v. Wade?

3) How important will the issue of abortion rights be in this year's congressional elections?

Among Republican voters, 75 percent approve of the Supreme Court’s decision while just 20 percent disapprove. 71 percent of Democrats disapprove of the ruling, but 25 percent approve. Voters not affiliated with either major party are more closely divided, with 53 percent approving the court’s decision and 42 percent disapproving.

52 percent of voters self-identify as generally pro-choice on the issue of abortion, while 41 percent view themselves as pro-life. 78 percent of pro-choice voters disapprove of the Supreme Court’s decision, while 88 percent of pro-life voters approve of the ruling.

Voters overwhelmingly believe the abortion issue will matter in November. 75 percent expect abortion to be an important issue in this year's congressional elections, including 54 percent who think it will be very important. Only 22 percent of voters don’t believe abortion will be important in the fall midterm elections.

72 percent of Democrats, 41 percent of Republicans, and 47 percent of unaffiliated voters say abortion will be a very important issue in this year's congressional elections. 74 percent of voters who self-identify as pro-choice, compared with 33 percent of those who say they are pro-life, expect abortion to be a very important issue.

More women voters (55 percent) than men (49 percent) self-identify as pro-choice, and more women voters (59 percent) than men (48 percent) believe the abortion issue will be very important in this year’s congressional elections.

With inflation at its highest for nearly 50 years and a recession looming, economic issues are the most important to American voters. And with nothing much to commend themselves, incumbent Democrats like Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) have jumped on the abortion issue in an attempt to rally their base.

And this is where the lies begin.

In a fundraising appeal emailed on Monday, Gottheimer’s campaign wrote: “And after last week’s devastating SCOTUS opinion on Roe v. Wade – Pallotta DOUBLED DOWN in his extremism. Pallotta went as far as to call choice…manslaughter.”

Actually, Frank Pallotta was making an important point about the abortion debate: The reason why so many self-described “pro-choice” voters support the Supreme Court’s decision is because the leaders of the pro-choice movement have turned the moderate “safe and rare” mantra of the Clinton years into a quasi-religious cult that celebrates abortion up to and including the day of birth.

The pro-choice cause was more convincing back when it followed medical science and provided women with an escape hatch, while recognizing the medical facts regarding the viability of the fetus. Arguably, this was a balanced, rational approach that rejected faith-based assertions about the “sanctity of life”. When someone believes life begins is very different from when medical science maintains it is viable.

But then “pro-choice” radicals took control of the debate away from moderates like former President Bill Clinton. For folks like Chelsea Handler, abortion became a kind of holy sacrament, and it got nuts. Now it was the “pro-choice” folks who were advancing a faith-based mantra and rejecting medical science. Guys like Josh Gottheimer, trying to stay one-step ahead of a primary, got caught up in the wave and started voting that way.

Before labeling Frank Pallotta an “extremist” on abortion, the Gottheimer crew might want to remember the company he’s keeping. Like… go try and have a day-of-birth abortion in Israel and see what happens.

In Israel, a woman must go before a “termination committee” made up of two licensed physicians and a social worker to receive permission to get an abortion. No surprise then that the rate of abortion in Israel is much lower than in the United States. According to Wikipedia:

“There are 41 termination committees operating in public or private hospitals across Israel. These committees consist of three members, two of which are licensed physicians, and one a social worker. Of the two physicians, one must be a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, and the other one either OB/GYN, internal medicine, psychiatry, family medicine, or public health. At least one member must be a woman. Six separate committees consider abortion requests when the fetus is beyond 24 weeks old.”

In France, abortion on demand is legal during the first 14 weeks from conception. Abortions at later stages of pregnancy are only allowed if two physicians certify that the abortion will be done “to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman; a risk to the life of the pregnant woman; or that the child will suffer from a particularly severe illness recognized as incurable.”

In Argentina abortion is legal on demand in the first 14 weeks of gestation. Wikipedia notes: “The abortion law was liberalized after the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill (Argentina) was passed by the National Congress in December 2020. According to the law, any woman can request the procedure at any public or private health facility. Doctors are legally bound to either perform it or, if they are conscientious objectors, refer the patient to another physician or health facility. Only four other Latin or South American countries have legalized abortion on request: Cuba in 1965, Guyana in 1995, Uruguay in 2012 and Colombia in 2022. According to polling in 2021, around 44% of Argentinians support the legalization of abortion on request; other polls showed 50–60% of Argentinians opposed the bill.”

Abortion in Australia mirrors what we might see here soon. Wikipedia writes: “It has been fully decriminalized in all jurisdictions, starting with Western Australia in 1998 and lastly in South Australia in 2021. Access to abortion varies between the states and territories: surgical abortions are readily available on request within the first 16 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, although with no limit on gestational term in the Australian Capital Territory. Later term abortions generally require the approval of two doctors, though are heavily restricted in Western Australia after 20 weeks.”

Abortion in South Africa is legal on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and under certain conditions afterwards. “A woman of any age can get an abortion on request with no reasons given if she is less than 12 weeks pregnant. If she is between 13 and 20 weeks pregnant, she can get the abortion if (a) her own physical or mental health is at stake, (b) the baby will have severe mental or physical abnormalities, (c) she is pregnant because of incest, (d) she is pregnant because of rape, or (e) she is of the personal opinion that her economic or social situation is sufficient reason for the termination of pregnancy. If she is more than 20 weeks pregnant, she can get the abortion only if her or the fetus' life is in danger or there are likely to be serious birth defects.”

In October 2021, new rules came into effect in India governing abortions. The gestation period for terminating a pregnancy with 1 doctor's opinion was extended from 12 weeks to 20 weeks, with the rule being expanded to include unmarried women. For termination of pregnancy with 2 doctors' opinions it was extended from 20 weeks to 24 weeks for the following special categories: survivors of sexual assault or rape or incest, minors, change of marital status during the pregnancy (widowhood and divorce), women with physical disabilities, mentally ill women, the fetal anomalies that have substantial risk of being incompatible with life or if the child is born it may suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities to be seriously handicapped, women with pregnancy in humanitarian settings or disaster or emergency. A medical board determines requests for termination of a pregnancy longer than 24 weeks in the cases of fetal anomalies. The board examines the woman and her reports and approves or denies the request within 3 days.

In Ukraine, abortion is legal on request only during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Between 12 and 28 weeks, abortion is available on a variety of grounds, with the approval of a board of physicians. That’s up to 28 weeks – not 40 weeks!

About the only countries that would agree with the Gottheimer campaign’s assessment of Frank Pallotta are North Korea and Red China. Hey Josh, looks like you need to be more careful with the company you keep. You sound kind of, well, extremist.

On Getting People to Vote, Fred Snowflack has some words of wisdom.

Fred Snowflack is a wise old owl.  A career journalist of the old school, card carrier of the Society of Professional Journalists, an exceptional editor, and the type of old-fashioned liberal that every small community once benefitted from -- be it town or neighborhood.  His traditional liberalism, long out of fashion today, was tuned to Professor Karl Polanyi's warning that... "Robbed of the protective covering of cultural institutions, human beings would perish from the effects of social exposure; they would die as the victims of acute social dislocation through vice, perversion, crime, and starvation.  Nature would be reduced to its elements, neighborhoods and landscapes defiled, rivers polluted, military safety jeopardized, the power to produce food and raw materials destroyed."

We are fortunate that Mr. Snowflack still has a venue for his writing.  The balanced opinions he once offered in the pages of Gannett publications like the Daily Record are now available on InsiderNJ.com.  Yesterday's column by Snowflack, was evidence (if any was needed) that he has lost none of his abilities to get to the heart of something and touch it with a needle.  Writing about the Women's March rally in Morristown over the weekend, he offered this insight:

" Are we seeing a Democratic version of the Tea Party?

Perhaps.

That thought crossed my mind last weekend as I covered the Women’s March in Morristown and read about similar marches all over the country.

I came across one quote in particular from a Bergen County woman who attended the march in Manhattan. She said that until the election of Donald Trump as president, she and her circle of friends spent much of their TV time watching “reality shows.”  Now, they watch news programs, or if you prefer, “real reality shows.”

This is important for politics now and going forward. 

Follow politics for a while and you quickly realize that a key to winning elections is not convincing those who disagree with you to come over to your side. That’s unlikely to happen, especially in these very polarizing times.

The key is to somehow get those who agree with you to actually vote.

This is critical at a time when voter turnout is considered good if it reaches 50 percent. The more “non-voters” you can energize, the better it is for you.

His full column is here:  https://www.insidernj.com/anti-trump-political-movement-search-name-catchy-tea-party/

Wow!  Now there is a man who gets it! 

The key to winning elections is to motivate people who generally don't vote, but who would consider voting for your party. 

That's contrary to the mantra coming from some GOP types -- like defeated gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno.  They claim that only a "moderate" can win statewide.  This is, of course, simply an opinion and an opinion that ignores the fact that the only Republican who has won statewide in the last twenty years has been Pro-Life, Pro-Second Amendment, and opposed to Same-Sex Marriage.

This unreason is widespread and it gets even worse.  Indeed, in the case of the Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO), the claim is made that only a "moderate" can win in a congressional district that voted for Donald Trump. 

In these very partisan times, merely having an "R" next to your name -- leave out supporting Donald Trump or Chris Christie -- is enough to preclude any significant support from voters who self-identify as Pro-Choice on Abortion, Pro-Gun Control, and Pro-LGBT.  If these are your first tier issues, what floats your boat, you are not voting Republican in 2018.  Period.

Despite this, there is a full court press to mint Republican candidates who intentionally suppress key parts of the GOP base.  Like the BCRO's Pro-Abortion John McCann.  In elections that increasingly depend on identifying and turning out anyone who will even consider voting Republican, this is a disastrous trend. 

Of course, these left-of-center Republicans tend to be popular with the dregs of the GOP's Whitman-era glitterati --  cocktail-party liberals and crony capitalists who still think they run the NJGOP -- and who are increasingly uncomfortable in the knowledge that they make up just a thimbleful of actual Republican voters. 

Unfortunately for them, most voters are not looking to transfer more wealth and power to the one-percent, while infantilizing various "groups" deemed worthy of protection. 

Working class Republican voters and working class Democrat voters are really not that different.  They care about being able to have the means to life.  They want jobs, the opportunity to start a small business; to be free from the worry of foreclosure; an education system that balances costs with results; a safety net that hasn't all been spent before they need it, and a justice system that looks on them a free citizens and that keeps safe the places where they live, work, and shop. 

The needs of working people are pretty straightforward.  If it were an ice cream shop it would be plain vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.  Of course, the oligarchs of the Democrat Party can't provide that -- so they advertise a dozen flavors other than vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry -- while the "My Party Too" Whitman Republicans have placed out a sign that says, "Closed for business, we've run out of ideas."

Why this is so was the subject of a study conducted by Princeton University.  Take the time to listen to this video.  It could be an eye-opener:

Instead of trying to stand-out and apart from the "usual" Republican through the tired and ultimately unconvincing trope of "a different kind of Republican" when it comes to abortion and LGBT rights, the next generation of Republican candidates could act boldly and stand out as pledged to ending modern slavery.  If you need to know how bad it is, just read the newspapers.  Just last week, the Star-Ledger ran this...

"Authorities say a teenage girl found walking along Interstate 295 in Mercer County last week was a victim of human trafficking and had escaped from a motel, where she was forced into prostitution...

An investigation led to the arrests of Ashley Gardener, 29, and her partner, Breon Mickens, 26, both of Trenton.

Mickens and Gardener had transported the teenager to multiple hotels against her will and forced her to engage in prostitution, police said. 

Gardener allegedly forced the victim to engage in sexual activity with multiple men and allegedly collected the money paid by the clients. She also placed sexually suggestive ads on Backpage.com with photos of herself and the victim, police said.

The ads offered adult entertainment and listed a phone number police say belonged to Gardener."

Or you can listen to Ashton Kutcher's testimony before Congress...

According to the U.S. Justice Department, as many as 300,000 Americans under 18 are lured into the commercial sex trade every year.  The Internet is the vehicle for 76 percent of the transactions for sex with underage girls. 

The average victim is between 11 and 14 years old.  These victims come from all walks of life -- from every race, social, and economic background.

The problem is made worse by America's fluid borders.  According to the United Nations (UNICEF), 2 million children are trafficked in the global prostitution trade. The U.S. State Department reports that from 600,000 to 800,000 people (mainly women and children) are bought and sold across international borders every year and exploited for slave labor and prostitution.

Human Trafficking has surpassed the sale of illegal arms and is set to surpass the illegal sale of drugs.  The FBI reports that human trafficking is on the rise in all 50 states and represents a multi-billion dollar criminal industry. 

New Jersey is a "hub for human trafficking," according to the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.  In September, 14 people were arrested in a child-porn and human trafficking operation in Monmouth County.  In October , the FBI announced that it had uncovered and arrested 42 child sex traffickers in New Jersey.  The Star-Ledger reported that the 42 were arrested on charges that included sex trafficking, child exploitation and prostitution.  A total of 84 children were rescued during the operation.  At the beginning of December, 79 suspects were arrested on a host of charges that included sexual assault, using the Internet to send inappropriate images to children, and child pornography. 

And with schools requiring young students to have access to the Internet, it is no longer about the parent.  The government-run education system supplants the parents and requires the child to be connected to the Internet.  For many children, it's like requiring them to walk to and from school on a dangerous, traffic-filled highway.

There was legislation in Trenton to addresses this growing criminal enterprise aimed at our children.  It was a bill championed by Republican State Senator Steve Oroho, and it attracted substantial bi-partisan support.  Despite having enough legislators committed to passing this legislation -- either as co-sponsors or supporters -- the Democrats who run both chambers of the Legislature killed it.

They listened to objections from the porn industry, who have adopted a "no questions asked" attitude on where their profits come from.  Porn is legal and the corporations who profit from it and their allies are the enablers of human trafficking.

This state legislation has companion bills in nearly every state and in the United States Congress.  Republicans could be its champion.  Instead of taking on the self-defeating label of "Pro-Choice on Abortion Republican", Republicans could be the face of the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Prevention Act and offer a constitutional way to prevent predators from using the Internet to sexually exploit children.  Republicans could be leaders in championing the technology to defeat child sex traffickers.

Yes, we know it is outside the Whitman-era, "My Party Too" box.  But think about it.

Sen. Beck votes for Planned Parenthood

At the State House on Thursday, liberal Republican State Senator Jennifer Beck voted for every piece of legislation she could to help assist Planned Parenthood, the number one provider of abortions in America.  In its 2014 Annual Report, Planned Parenthood bragged that it had performed 324,000 abortions that year.  It's annual revenue is $1.3 billion -- with at least $530 million of that coming from government funding.

S-1017 expands Planned Parenthood's government subsidized services to a greater portion of the population -- in this case "individuals with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level." 

Led by Senator Steve Oroho (R-Sussex, Warren, Morris), most Republicans opposed the bill.  Senator Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) was the only Republican to support the bill.

S-2277 spends more of your tax dollars on a "FY 2016 supplemental appropriation to the Department of Health for $7,453,000 for family planning services."  That's $7.4 Million in extra spending. 

Again, led by Senator Oroho, every Republican opposed the bill -- except for Senator Jennifer Beck.  She voted for it.

One of those looking on while Senator Beck did this was Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Communications Director Mike Proto.  Mike himself is Pro-Life and must have been embarrassed by AFP's support of Senator Beck.

NJ 101.5 impresario Bill Spadea ran for Congress as a Pro-Life candidate.  We wonder if he will ask Senator Beck about her votes when he next has her on his talk radio show.

State Senator Mike Doherty is a Beck cheer-leader.  Doherty also claims to be Pro-Life.  Perhaps Doherty can convince Senator Beck to stop spending money to support the nation's number one abortion provider.  That is a cost savings that can definitely be made.

Thursday: NJ Assembly votes on abortion

On Thursday, the New Jersey Assembly will vote to celebrate abortion in this country.  Yes, SCR-78 is a Loretta Weinberg special -- sponsored in the Assembly as ACR-119 by her ever faithful "me-too" Valerie Vainieri Huttle. 

Abortion is sad.  It is about emotional anguish and death.  Celebrating abortion is like celebrating war for its own sake.   How many ex-military pen testimonials about how much they liked killing?  Or how it was a great "life choice" to take an entrenching tool and shred another man's face until he was dead.

We may debate the ends, but the means of war and the means of abortion turn our stomachs.  It is a dark time informed by darker means. 

Nobody should lightly dismiss what a woman goes through when she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant.  Life is shockingly altered.  You are different, often ill and uncomfortable. Something is growing inside you that you cannot escape and if you don't take to it, find you cannot accept it, you want to claw it out of you and go back to how you were. 

Then the decision to terminate the pregnancy.  The knowledge that whatever that something is that you cannot accept inside you, it is real.  Those are human cells with a human potential. "It might have been a girl with hazel eyes like my mother."  "She might have loved music and walks at the shore and the cool touch of the wind."  But none of that will be.  This will remain a book unwritten. 

In the debate over humanity and viability, one thing is certain:  Abortion ends a human story.

We have recently seen a campaign to normalize the ending of these stories, by some, in what they self-describe as the "pro-choice" community.  Some actress gets up and talks about how great her abortion was.  Is she acting -- or just a psychopath?  How would we react to a military leader who stood up and told us how much he enjoyed roasting people with napalm?    

We need to be honest about abortion, as we do about war.  We should not "celebrate" either or defend it with chants -- whether they be "choice for women" or "USA, USA."  Like war, abortion is a terrible business.  A matter for adult contemplation -- not juvenile celebration.

The old Left knew a thing or two about educating people as to the truth of a thing.  A hundred  years ago, Europe was engaged in what became known as the Great War, and later, as World War One.  That war began with cheering crowds, celebrating.  After it was over, a triumphant parade was organized in Paris, with all the allies there to participate.  Soldiers from every winning nation were formed to march.  A wise soul suggested that a contingent of wounded soldiers be placed up front, which ended up being an enormous assemblage of many horribly wounded veterans -- les mutiles -- the mutilated.  It placed things into context and turned a juvenile celebration into an adult consideration.

As followers of the New Left's Herbert Marcuse, Weinberg and Huttle flit between "summer of love" rhetoric and an intolerant "tolerance" that they adopt when making laws.  And they are absolute ghouls on the subject of abortion.  Seeking to "celebrate" something that, like war, cannot really, with any sanity, be celebrated.

But then, there are the profits.  There is a business of abortion, like the business of war, and it is about market-share, and monopoly, and cashing in.  Oh all those New Lefties who grew up to be Wall Streeters. . . and members of the New Jersey Legislature!