C-484 Not About Abortion. Oh. Wait. Maybe It Is.

 

Because the fetus fetishists are going to try to clobber opponents of Ken Epp’s private member’s bill, C-484, aka A Sneaky Backdoor Attempt to Recriminalize Abortion, with the results of two opinion polls, we at Birth Pangs thought we should examine them.

The first, the oft-quoted ‘Environics’ poll commissioned and paid for by Life Canada, was conducted last fall as part of the fetus fetishists’ annual exercise in futility. The poll title is ‘Canadian Attitudes Toward Abortion Issues’, but remember, Epp’s bill has nothing, nada, zip, zero to do with abortion.

We’ve posted on this poll a couple of times, most recently here.

Pollsters completed interviews with 2,047 Canadian adults who were told that in the past two years, three pregnant women had been murdered. They were also informed that because the Criminal Code does not recognize a fetus as a ‘human being’, there could be only one charge of murder or assault. Then they were asked if they supported or opposed legislation making it a separate crime to injure or kill a fetus during an attack on its mother.

Now don’t forget the timing. Epp’s bill hadn’t been tabled yet and certainly hadn’t been talked about outside of fetus fetishist circles.

So, it’s not particularly surprising that 72% of respondents obviously found the murder of pregnant women deserving of some stiffer punishment and said they would support such legislation.

We skip ahead to March 7 to 10, 2008, right after C-484 squeaked by in the House on March 5.

Angus Reid, apparently with no paying customer, decided to survey public opinion on the bill. There were 1,023 completed interviews with a margin of error of 3.1%. (There’s a downloadable pdf at the link.)

There were two questions.

1. As you may know, the House of Commons is debating a bill called the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, which would make it a separate crime if a fetus dies when its mother is attacked. From what you have seen, read, or heard, do you support or oppose passing this legislation?

Strongly support: 44%
Moderately support: 26% (Add together for the tossed-about figure of 70%.)
Strongly oppose: 12%
Moderately oppose: 7%
Not sure: 11%

2. (Statement A) Some people say that the Unborn Victims of Crime Act is only intended to punish offenders who knowingly harm a fetus in an attack.
(Statement B) Others say it is actually an attempt to recriminalize abortion in Canada.
Which of these statements comes closer to your own point of view?

A (nope, nothing, nada, zip, zero to do with abortion): 53%
B (dern tootin’, it’s a sneaky attempt to reciminalize abortion): 24%
Not sure: 23%

First, we need to point out that this poll uses the fetus fetishizers’ own abbreviated title for the bill. Its actual, complete title is ‘An Act to amend the Criminal Code (injuring or causing the death of an unborn child while committing an offense)’.

Now to the results.

Hmm. When the word abortion is mentioned in the second question, suddenly the ‘not sures’ double, while the pro side decreases to 53% (from the much-touted 70% in the first question) and anti side increases from 19% to 24%.

Gee. It’s like a lightbulb suddenly went off in the minds of 1,023 Canadians: ‘Wow. Despite all the bleating from Ken Epp and his buddies, maybe this is about abortion.’

(Interestingly, in the breakdowns for gender, region, age, and voting preference, we find that 29% of men believe it’s a backdoor attempt at recriminalization, while just 19% of women think so. Are men more suspicious? Or what?)

Mainstream media coverage before the vote was just about non-existent and it didn’t get much better right after the vote.

We at Birth Pangs humbly submit that most of those good 1,023 Canadians hadn’t heard of the bill before the pollster dialled their phone number. And we further submit that even those who had heard of it hadn’t heard much of substance.

On the other hand, when people do hear the truth about this bill, they tend to react with stunned surprise. Then hie themselves to sign the online petition opposing it.

As of this writing, 7,134 good Canadians — just about seven times the number of people polled by Angus Reid — have signed it.

We at Birth Pangs devoutly hope that some great polling outfit will take it upon itself to re-canvass Canadians on this matter. After we’ve all learned a bit more about it and its proponents.