2015 was a big year for pregnancy resource centers

A pregnancy center in Livonia, Michigan

A couple weeks ago, we blasted USA Today for a very badly worded polling question that skewed the results in a pro-Planned-Parenthood direction. So today, allow us to present an example of polling done right.

The poll was sponsored by the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), a pro-life research group. Concerning pregnancy resource centers, it asked:

These centers provide free medical services and other support to women with an unexpected pregnancy and encourage them to give birth to their babies. They do not offer or refer women for abortions. Do you have an overall opinion of organizations of this kind?

I always find it funny when abortion supporters point the finger at pregnancy centers and cry “They don’t do abortions!” Well, duh. That’s not a secret and it never has been, despite all pro-choice weeping and wailing to the contrary. They claim pregnancy resource centers trick people into thinking they’re abortion businesses, but when you drill down those claims, they are usually based on a fundamental philosophical disagreement (how dare they call themselves a ‘Women’s Clinic,’ everyone knows anti-choicers hate women’s health!) or are just plain stupid (pregnancy centers locate themselves near abortion businesses so that sidewalk counselors can easily redirect women who change their mind, not because women can’t tell the abortion business and the pregnancy center apart; do you think women are idiots? and if that were the case, wouldn’t pregnancy centers also lose women to the abortion business?).

And the CLI poll shows that there’s no need for deception, because a simple, forthright description of what pregnancy centers do—encourage birth over abortion—yields a positive result:

An impressive 80 percent of respondents reported a “favorable view” of pregnancy centers with 46 percent of women and 37 percent of men saying “very favorable.” Such results speak to broad-based support of charitable abortion alternatives outreach and expansion of such outreach.

LifeNews reported last week that pregnancy centers saved approximately 300,000 babies from abortion in 2015.

The CLI poll went on to ask about abortion centers:

There is another type of organization which works with pregnant women. These organizations help women who do not want to become or stay pregnant. They do offer abortions and refer women for abortions. Do you have an overall opinion of organizations of this kind?

I find this question to be very generous to the opposition; it assumes that abortion helps women and makes no reference to the fact that many abortion centers are for-profit while pregnancy resources centers are uniformly not-for-profit. CLI must have worked hard on the wording of the question, because you can’t tell that it’s from a pro-life organization at all.

And yet, even with this pleasant wording, only 49% of respondents reported a favorable view of abortion centers.

The future of pregnancy care is bright. Let’s save even more lives from the abortion industry in 2016!