From Gallup:

A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.

Contrary to the usual media story, pro-life support is not exclusive to Christians - support for the pro-life position has risen to 31% among non-Christians from 20% two years ago (relevant to this is my column urging Christians to fight the abortion issue on human rights, not on religious grounds). Women are also pro-life by a 5% margin.

I am not sure what explains this sudden rise in the Gallup poll. Other polls have long shown that pro-lifers are in the majority, but Gallup's changed quite drastically in one year. It could be, as Gallup suggests, that Barack Obama's radical view on abortion has pushed the pro-choice position further to the Left on the political spectrum - indeed, most of the new pro-life support comes from moderates and conservatives.

I would add a couple of long-term trends: first, polls in recent years have shown that the young, including teenagers, are overwhelmingly pro-life. Perhaps this pool is now entering the polling sample and is having an impact on the results. Also, abortion rates have been falling since 1997, and even faster since George W. Bush's election to the presidency. With a smaller percentage of the population having abortions, knowing someone who did, or being otherwise impacted by abortion, it might be less likely to find valiant defenders for it - in fact, not only did support for abortion fall, but also the extent to which pro-choicers tend to support abortion.

All in all, this is wonderful news, and I'm in a much better mood going into the weekend. Of course, there is a long, long way to go, and we need to capitalize on this advantage soon and strongly - Obama will be sure to present us with an opportunity upon his upcoming nomination of the next Supreme Court justice.