The XX Factor: What women really think.

Becoming Pro-Life

I’ve been mulling the responses I got, via email and comments, to my question about why a recent Gallup poll might show a seven point jump in the percentage of people who define themselves as prolife (from 44 percent last year to 51 percent this year). Several theories from readers:

The Election.

I think this past year forced me to think about how I really felt. The election has something to do with it . . . Obama’s mother also set me on a course of reflection. As an intelligent, curious single mom who struggled to give her son the best, I could relate.

I really want to be liberal, but in my life the most tangible support as a poor, single mother came from people who looked, acted, and talked just like Sarah Palin. Other high-status women didn’t give me chances; they were the first to complain when I needed time off for a sick child. Academics can write about women’s issues but the evangelicals made sure I could afford to go to work. In contrast, my university still doesn’t offer onsite child-care.

The Aging Population.

Perhaps when folks pass the age at which their daughters may be faced with this decision they can more easily be moved...

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