Quick News Roundup 06/04/10

Decided I liked this format to provide our readers with a quick, easy to follow news roundup. So…here we go around the world in a single post.

State Laws – In Louisiana, the State Senate just passed a law requiring ultrasounds to be performed before an abortion. The ultrasound would be used to determine the age of the unborn child with the hope of preventing illegal abortions performed after 24 weeks. The bill, SB528, now heads to Louisiana’s House. The University of Wisconsin may be audited by a state commission for potential violation of state statutes. UoW had been using funds, from the state, to pay for students to participate in / perform abortions. The State will be investigating whether or not this was mandatory, but the mere spending of money on abortions is illegal based on Wisconsin law. And the New York Times has a big story on the fact that state laws are the place to be for pro-life legislation detailing a number of different laws being discussed in Mississippi and Oklahoma, and interviewing some pro-life advocates. Apparently 90% of recent pro-life legislation has been happening on the state level, so your state legislators and Governor’s races matter! Pay attention this year.

International News – In the United Kingdom, a new television ad is drawing the ire of pro-life advocates. Why? It’s advertising in support of abortion and the offering of abortion services. Check out the previous link to view the ad in question. The ad is currently banned in Northern Ireland. Despite abortion being illegal in Brazil, one in five women has had an abortion according to a new government study. They estimate between 500,000 and 1 million pregnancies are terminated annually.

Gallup Polling – Gallup released the results of their moral issues poll in late May. The results? 50% of Americans find abortion morally wrong, 38% find it morally acceptable. The interesting part comes in the breakdown of the polling data. Everyone expects Republicans as the more conservative American political party to state that abortions are morally wrong – but of those unaffiliated with a major political party only 39% said abortions are morally acceptable. Among women, only 36% stated that abortion was morally acceptable versus 41% amongst men. The results including the opinions on other moral issues can be found here.