Overall, Time’s coverage of Dr. Tiller’s murder is factually accurate and fair, but something has gotten on my nerves. Joe Klein’s essay Hot Buttons has a controversial and inaccurate interpretation of a recent Gallup poll.

In truth, Tiller was practicing a form of medicine most Americans find abhorrent. Recent polls show a notable shift away from pro-choice sentiment — in early May, the Gallup Organization recorded a majority of Americans taking a pro-life position for the first time since it began asking the question in 1995. It’s possible that abortion has become less acceptable because of the remarkable advances in sonogram technology.

A look at the poll he cites tells quite a different story. More Americans describe themselves as pro-life but only a minority shares the views of the actual pro-life movement. Pro-life is accepted as meaning that a person believes abortion should be either completely outlawed or only allowed under very strict limits. Pro-choice means that one believes abortion should remain legal in all or most cases. Only 23% said that abortion should always be illegal in all circumstances. The most popular position in this poll (coming in at 53%) said that abortion should be legal under certain circumstances. When probed further it seems as though these voters lean in favor of stricter regulations (I’d like to see exactly what these would be) and the other polls certainly show Americans leaning toward the pro-life stance, but I still see a major disconnect here in how people describe their views and what their actual position is. Feministe blogger piny has an excellent piece up about this disconnect: Feministe | Terms of Debate

“Pro-life” does not refer to a moral objection to abortion or an unwillingness to choose it for oneself. It refers to the belief that the law should prevent other women from getting the abortions they do want, and that people like Dr. Tiller should be rotting in prison. Or in the ground. It doesn’t mean legal in the first trimester. It doesn’t mean legal up to a certain phase of fetal development. It doesn’t mean legal with restrictions. It doesn’t mean safe, legal, and rare. It doesn’t mean legal but shameful or legal but less necessary. It means a broad prohibition on elective abortion.

Like piny, I don’t think that the majority of those who describe themselves as pro-life actually fit into that political category. I wish that Joe Klein had taken this into account in his piece.

I’d like to write a letter to Time telling them that their coverage was great but that they have a few things that ought to be corrected. Most of all, I want to point out that Dr. Tiller provided abortions under circumstances that most Americans agree are acceptable: threat to the woman’s life and health, fetal abnormality that might result–or have already resulted–in death.

 

I’d like to write a letter, but I don’t know exactly what to say yet. I think that Klein should not have supported a misleading interpretation of the Gallup poll. I think Dr. Tiller deserves a better remembrance than Time gives him, but I think that maybe I’m not the right person to say it. It would be better said by the women he helped who are already speaking out about how Dr. Tiller helped them through tragedies and saved their lives.