The problem is you’re speaking of “women” in general, in total and in a group. Here are the numbers again:
- There is a new law in Virginia that legally requires women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound at least 24 hours before the procedure. Do you approve or disapprove of this new law?
Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Wht Blk
Approve 41% 61% 27% 39% 38% 44% 42% 35%
Disapprove 52 31 67 56 56 49 51 57
DK/NA 7 9 6 5 7 7 7 8
zweisamkeit correctly points out that these numbers relate only to Virginian women, not women as a whole. But even that’s not the whole story.
As you can see, among people who approve of the ultrasound bill, 44% of women surveyed approved of the bill compared to 38% of the men surveyed.
However. Among people who disapprove of the bill 56% of the men surveyed disliked it compared to 49% of the women surveyed disliked it.
The number of women who disapproved of the ultrasound bill was greater than both the number of men and number women who approved of it. Therefore, you can not say that women approve of the bill more than men do, even if we skip over the part where you’re conflating Virginian women with women in general.
Regarding the support for abortion rights, the numbers I posted from the 2012 Quinnipac poll you cited are roughly similar to the sort of numbers we get from Gallup’s polls on abortion rights. Only 20% of the population, roughly, thinks abortion should be completely illegal. The other 80% thinks it should be legal at least in some circumstances, with the argument being over the nature of those circumstances. The anti-abortion crowd and Gallup themselves like to lump the people who think it should be rare circumstances in with the 20-ish percent who think it should be totally illegal. That’s they only way they can sell the idea that the country’s divided on abortion.
Here are those numbers again too, from the poll that you cited (and I linked):
- Do you think abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases or illegal in all cases?
Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Wht Blk
Legal all cases 21% 9% 36% 20% 18% 24% 19% 28%
Legal most cases 36 28 36 42 40 33 37 34
Illegal most cases 23 36 16 20 23 23 23 19
Illegal all cases 12 19 6 10 11 14 13 12
DK/NA 7 8 5 8 8 6 8 7
And here are the numbers from the most recent Quinnipiac poll, form Ocotober 4, 2013, specifically comparing the opinions of American Catholics to Americans in general.
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute/search-releases/search-results/release-detail?ReleaseID=1961&What=&strArea=;&strTime=12
They found that American Catholic opinion on abortion is roughly the same as Americans in general: only about 20 percent want it to be illegal in all cases, the other 80-ish% want it to be legal.
- (All adults) Do you think abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases or illegal in all cases?
ALL ADULTS..........................................
ATTEND SRVCS AGE..............
Tot Men Wom Weekly Less 18-49 50-64 65+
Legal all cases 19% 17% 22% 11% 24% 22% 19% 14%
Legal most cases 34 36 32 22 41 35 35 31
Illegal most cases 23 24 22 33 18 22 24 26
Illegal all cases 16 14 18 26 11 17 13 17
DK/NA 7 8 6 8 6 4 9 11