It's always a bit humorous when a celebrity tries so hard to make a public spectacle of their sophistication, intelligence, and wherewithal, only to end up stepping on the end of reality's rake. Actress Jessica Biel was the latest to join that long list, when she heroically advocated for a mom's right to kill her offspring by posting a picture of herself and Justin Timberlake standing in front of France's Eiffel Tower.
As it turned out, of course, France has a 14-week abortion ban – meaning Biel's country of preference limits "women's rights" more rigidly than the state of Mississippi sought to do with their 15-week ban that was upheld in the Dobbs v Jackson decision Biel laments. But cut the starlet some slack – between yoga classes, award shows, and world travel, it's tough to keep up on current events.
The truth is, for as much as progressive activists raged in the days following Dobbs that the right had somehow taken a hefty dump in their own midterm election dinner plate – angering the electorate with such an extremist move as overturning the seminal Roe v Wade decision – it seems as though that just isn't the case.
Truthfully, with as much as divisive politicians love to pretend otherwise in fundraising appeals, America has never been either aggressively pro-life (that is, favoring a national ban on all abortions, in all cases) nor aggressively pro-abortion (that is, favoring abortion-on-demand). If that seems curiously contrary to most opinion polls you see cited regularly, that's because the media's progressive bias, coupled with the public's short attention span, never explores those polls' "internals."
In other words, polling data showing strong support for legal abortion are always predicated upon a broad, all-encompassing understanding of the issue. A poll may show that only 13% of the public favors a ban on all abortion in all cases. That is then interpreted and reported as "87% of Americans favoring abortion rights." Of course, that same poll may show that only 13% of the public favors no limits on abortion. But you will never hear it reported that "87% of Americans reject abortion-on-demand."
So, what happens when polling data dives into true public sentiment on the issue? Particularly, as the midterm election approaches with the Dobbs decision fresh in the mind of the electorate – a decision that wrenched power over abortion law away from federal courts and put it back in the hands of citizens and their own state legislatures, what kind of an impact will this all have? The answer may surprise you:
That's not exactly what Buzzfeed news, Twitter trends, and the ladies at "The View" would have you believe. But it is entirely consistent with other polling that shows lack of extremism in legislative preferences among a vast majority of citizens. Most Americans:
- don't think abortion should be used as a form of birth control,
- abhor the practice when it is used to exterminate unwanted races or Down syndrome babies, and
- would prefer it be limited to use in so-called "exceptional circumstances" involving rape, sexual abuse of minors, and medical emergencies.
While those views would certainly be outside the Hollywood mainstream, and out of step with the cackling bloodlust espoused by politicians like AOC and Liz Warren, they would actually be fairly centered with the rest of the world community.
Could a "Summer of Feminist Rage" still descend upon us? Could a sleeping giant of incensed fembots and their sex-trafficking male minion allies rise up to motivate the electorate before November? I suppose.
But all indications are that the Supreme Court has done more to end America's abortion extremism than stoke it.
