During the past two weeks our hypothetical Chief Executives (you) had to make a decision concerning whether to veto a bill banning a type of late-term abortion. The options presented were the following:

Option A: Sign the Bill. Ban partial-birth abortions except if the mother faces death by continuing with her pregnancy. Not only is the procedure medically unnecessary, but respected physicians have also testified that it can imperil a woman's health. Basically, the procedure is legalized infanticide.

Option B: Veto the Bill. A woman would not have an abortion in the third trimester if her pregnancy had not gone terribly wrong; in this situation she should not be forced to carry her baby to term. This bill represents a slow hollowing out of a woman's right to choose.

The Results

Option A: 58%
Option B: 42%

Many respondents who chose Option A said they supported abortion in the first trimester but that a woman has lost the right to choose by the third trimester, when the fetus could survive outside the womb. Some felt that late-term abortions enable a woman to get rid of an "imperfect" child and wondered why having a late-term abortion would cause any less emotional pain than bringing the baby to term and having it die outside the womb. Finally, many were persuaded by the fact that respected doctors had refuted the necessity of this procedure.

Those who supported Option B believed that this issue is an individual one that should not be decided by politicians; many agreed that no woman would go through such a terrible procedure for trivial reasons. Some questioned whether a law is really necessary for a procedure that affects such a small segment of the population. And some said that this law is not about morality but about who has control over a woman's body.

Party Lines

Option	Democrats	Republicans	Independents	Other	Unregistered
Option A	11%	23%	12%	5%	2%
Option B	23%	5%	6%	3%	2%

The Significance of the Issue

Issue	Most Significant	Very Important	Fairly Important	Not Very Important	Completely Irrelevant
Abortion	9%	39%	26%	22%	4%
Drugs	2%	38%	39%	17%	1%
Cuba	0%	5%	28%	63%	3%
Welfare	5%	53%	36%	5%	1%
Balancing the Budget	17%	49%	21%	9%	3%
Tobacco Regulation	0%	10%	28%	43%	15%
Trade Policy	6%	35%	45%	13%	0%
Campaign-Finance Reform	9%	41%	27%	20%	4%
Health-Care Reform	4%	39%	41%	13%	2%
Entitlement Reform	12%	56%	27%	4%	2%
Immigration Reform	2%	32%	50%	15%	1%

Age. Those 45 and over were much more likely to vote against the bill than were people in other age groups.

Age Range	Option A	Option B
Under 18	2%	0%
18-34	20%	14%
35-44	18%	10%
45-54	9%	8%
Over 55	5%	6%

Race and Gender. There were too few non-white respondents to present a good statistical analysis of whether responses differed among the races. Women made up 24% of respondents to this scenario.

Gender	Option A	Option B
Female	11%	13%
Male	42%	27%

Gender and Significance

Significance	Females	Males
Completely Irrelevant	0%	3%
Not Very Important	4%	17%
Fairly Important	4%	21%
Very Important	13%	22%
THE Most Significant Issue	2%	6%

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