People, in short, are pretty evenly divided on the question of banning abortion in all but the rarest cases, with 45 percent of the population having a pretty positive take on this abortion-banning concept. But the public is horrified by the idea of enforcing such a ban with prison time. That's not contradictory, as such, maybe tons of people think abortion should be illegal but punished merely with a light fine. It doesn't, however, make very much sense given the importance of the competing issues in play.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/10/ah-public-opinion/46587/
