Mediaboss Marketing

The abortion wars have been devastating. To be sure, they have made it virtually impossible to enact policies that actually reflect the will of the people when it comes to abortion. Their toxicity also has infected other issues, from healthcare reform to Supreme Court confirmations. Even now an abortion-related squabble risks derailing an important bill protecting the victims of human sex trafficking.

This lingering us versus them mentality stems from 1970s-style culture war polarization. But such dug-in, take-no-prisoners abortion politics can't last much longer. Shifting politics, legal developments and, especially, changing demographics suggest that we can and must do this debate differently. Indeed, taken together, these data show that substantial changes are simply inevitable.

Two groups that represent the future of the United States millennials and Latinos know nothing of the culture wars. Indeed, a huge percentage of young people have explicitly rejected them: 50% refuse to identity as Republican or Democrat.

Neither group fits comfortably with the pro-choice or pro-life camp either. While wanting legal abortion in some form, support for sharply restricting abortion is growing fastest among millennials.

Pro-choice activist groups are spooked: Young people who identify as pro-life are twice as likely as those who are pro-choice to consider abortion an important issue, according to research from NARAL, an abortion rights advocacy group. A remarkably low 37% of millennials consider abortion to be morally acceptable, according to the 2012 Millennial Values Survey.

Given their median age of 27 and the fact that they make up a large share of the coming minority majority in the U.S. population, Latinos are also poised to play a huge role in politics in general and abortion politics in particular. While it is clear they also don't want abortion to be made illegal, Latinos are significantly more pro-life than other Americans. For instance, 51% of Latinos want abortion banned in all or most cases, compared with only 41% of the population at large, according to a study from the Pew Research Center.

Moreover, even before the new demographics can force a change in abortion politics, it's clear that the lazy you're either for it or against it binary is far too simplistic. For example, in 2009 a quarter of the Democratic caucus made tough pro-life votes. A 2011 Gallup Poll found that 27% of Democrats identify as pro-life, with 44% saying that abortion should be legal in few or no circumstances. This while 28% of Republicans identify as pro-choice, with 63% saying that some abortions should remain legal.

Furthermore, significant majorities of Americans say that the term pro-choice describes them somewhat or very well, while simultaneously saying that the term pro-life describes them somewhat or very well.

Given this complexity, perhaps it is not surprising to find that 61% of Americans believe that abortion should be broadly legal during the first trimester while only 27% support it during the second, according to Gallup.

Despite the prevalence of the us and them meme in our abortion discourse and politicking, Americans have already rejected the choice/life binary, and the next generation will find the notion positively antiquated.

Follow this link:
Compromise between pro-life, pro-choice camps could end abortion wars