Shocking New Poll: Canadians Fine with Status Quo on Abortion!

So, LifeShite is SHRIEEKING about its latest poll under this headline: Canada: Poll Shows 72% Want Pro-Life Protections for Unborn.

(One wonders, in passing, what 'pro-life' protections are. As opposed to what other kinds of protections? Helmets? Identity theft?)

As usual, there is some flummery in how they get that number. Basically they throw out the protection 'at birth' and the 'don't give a shit' numbers, add the rest together and get 72%!!!!!11!!!

Here's how the numbers break down.

Human life should be protected:
at conception: 28%
from 2 months on: 17%
from 3 months on: 17%
from 6 months on: 10%
at birth: 20%
don't give a shit: 9%

Of course, the wording of the question is always interesting. There's a link at LifeShite to the PDF where I found this.

Q.5 This question concerns the development of human life before birth. According to medical research, a fetal heart begins to beat about three weeks after conception. Brain waves can be detected within two months after conception. By two months all organs and body parts are in place. In your opinion, at what point should the law protect human life?

Throw some misleading 'medical research' at people and ask them to pick a point in time. Say nothing about fetal viability, which is the stage that some sane people think is worth considering. But it's tricky.

There is no sharp limit of development, age, or weight at which a fetus automatically becomes viable. According to data years 2003-2005, 20 to 35 percent of babies born at 23 weeks of gestation survive, while 50 to 70 percent of babies born at 24 to 25 weeks, and more than 90 percent born at 26 to 27 weeks, survive. It is rare for a baby weighing less than 500g (17.6 ounces) to survive.

I wonder how the answers would have gone if the question had been something like this: 'Medical research shows that very premature babies cost the medical system boatloads of money, and even then, premies have poor survival rates and high risk of lifelong health problems. In your opinion, at what point should the healthcare system be on the hook for bazillions of dollars?'

Who came up with that bullshit question? Oh. Look. From Environics' PDF:

QUESTION DESIGN
The questions were designed by senior Environics researchers in conjunction with representatives from LifeCanada. The questions were pre-tested as part of the overall survey, prior to being finalized.

Translation: We put our top people on this 'fleecing the fetus fetishists' gambit.

Fetus fetishists were probably less happy with the legality question. A whopping 68% think abortion is fine in the first three months, which, not surprisingly, is within the timeframe of over 90% of abortions.

In other words, a solid majority of Canadians are A-OK with the status quo.

As we said back in April 2010, despite the Manning Centre's and abortion criminalizers' wishful thinking, Canada remains pro-choice and socially liberal. A fact that has remained virtually unchanged for the past decade.