Monday, June 05, 2006

Brand Swindell

Brand Swindell has an interesting post on her site, dated 3 June. She is happily announcing the closure of the Nampa Planned Parenthood. I find the post interesting for couple of reasons.

Ms. Swindell asserts
A 2003 Gallup poll indicates that 72% of American young people believe that abortion is morally wrong.

I find this difficult to believe in the extreme. Most polls find that a majority of Americans do not want to outlaw abortion. Outlawing it and believing it to be morally wrong are different and not necessarily mutually exclusive. Still, Ms. Swindell implies that 72% oppose abortion.

The widely respected Pew Center says:
A consistent majority of Americans (65%) are opposed to overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing a woman's right to abortion.
The World Net Daily does report such a Gallup poll, but note that the WND is a conservative outlet, and note that it says 45% of teens believe abortion should be legal in some circumstances.

Frontline quotes the Pew Center as saying that 41% of persons believe abortion is morally wrong in some circumstances. This number does not jive with the 72% number. I believe Ms. Swindell is either misinformed or is misleading, or she is the Queen of cognitive dissonance.

The other reason I find her post interesting is the quote she has from Monique Jones. The quote parrots language used by Ms. Swindell in her news releases and in various statements on her websites. "Culture of life" "young people" "post-roe (sic) generation" "enormous" "amazing" The quote also sports two exclamation points, and Ms. Swindell's sentences before and after the quote sprout exclamation points like a porcupine sprouts quills. So I'm saying the quote is suspicious. Perhaps it was embellished, or perhaps it was just said by a Brand Swindell acolyte. Either way it's an odd inclusion in the post.

Last, click on the site's links to Brandi in the News, then click on the News Releases link. Same list in both links. It appears that Ms. Swindell is in the news only when she issues a news release.

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