The vast right-wing conspiracy
Posted: July 24, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
The White House just reversed a planned $34 million grant to the United Nations to use in its "family planning" programs. Among the "family planning" measures that money would have paid for are forced sterilizations and abortions, especially in China.
Chinese authorities are notorious for enforcing their "one child" policy. Proponents of the U.N. family planning program complain that the decision was made under political pressure from the alleged "right wing." Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney attributed it to the White House's "mindless zeal to take care of their right-wing base."
Who is the right wing? On the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the New York Times conducted a poll on U.S. attitudes. It found about half of all Americans in 1998 equated abortion with murder. Only 32 percent believed that abortion should be generally available. Just 25 percent agreed that it was OK for a woman to have an abortion for career reasons. A minority of 42 percent would allow a girl to have an abortion so she could stay in school.
This month, ABC News conducted its own poll. Having read through the questions and how they were framed, it is no surprise they end up with higher numbers – but nothing that would constitute a consensus.
ABC News found on July 2 that "52 percent of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, down from 59 percent in January and almost back to where it was (53 percent) last summer. Forty-three percent say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases." [ABCNews website, July 2.]
No matter which poll you accept, a greater majority of Americans are "right wing" on the question of abortion than voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 (when he won with a plurality margin of 41 percent).
Using ABC's figure of 52 percent, that means that the right wing consists of 48 percent of all Americans. Among people who oppose legal abortion, about half of them cite their religious beliefs as the main factor in their opinion. So that means that about a quarter of Americans are right wing, if one assumes believing in God makes one right wing.
What about the alleged "majority" view of abortion? The view that isn't "right wing," that is. Less than 10 percent of those who support abortion have any religious perspective at all. Are they the "left wing"? That would be roughly 5 percent of all Americans. The remainder – about 35 percent or so – would then be either "moderate" or "mainstream."
When CNN reported the decision to back out of the U.N. family planning project, it used the word "conservative" three times. CNN called Bush's policy reversal an "anti-abortion" position, while it referred to Bush's critics as those who favor "family planning." The label "liberal" was never applied to anybody.
The Boston Globe described the U.N. Population Fund this way: "The fund operates projects – ranging from contraception to abstinence education to gynecological services – in 142 countries." In their coverage, the word "conservative" appeared three times. It was the only label necessary.
It's either OK to kill the unborn under some circumstances or it is not OK under any circumstances. Everything in between involves just degrees of compromise arising from one of those two baseline approaches.
We know the "right wing" – to those who favor abortion – consists of anybody who opposes abortion. So the "right wing conservative conspiracy" consists of just about half of all Americans. Hillary Clinton was right. It really is "vast."
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