Be sure to read this entire report. As the Brown Spectator’s Editor Emeritus Ryan Fleming points out, Brown students are not only out of step with most Americans, but the entire western world.

How Extreme Are We?

It’s time for Brown students to see how far left-of-center they stand.

In November of last year, the Brown Daily Herald released a poll summarizing Brown students’ abortion views. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of students were pro-choice — 81.2 percent, to be exact. What does raise eyebrows is the extreme devotion to abortion rights that Brown students proclaim — the plurality of students, 42.1 percent, support abortion even in the third trimester.

This number is alarming for a number of reasons. It is an overwhelmingly unpopular position among the general public, few legislatures support it, and it encroaches into questionable bioethical territory.

The abortion debate is one of the most divisive topics in America. Unlike gay marriage, support for and against abortion has remained relatively split over the past few decades with no real generational divide. In fact, according to Gallup, Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 are less supportive of abortion than those between the ages of 30 and 49. Despite being a hard-fought cultural war of attrition, both sides do have some common ground: Third-trimester abortions should be illegal.

When the overwhelming majority of pro-choice¬ Americans feel that these late abortions should be illegal, Brown students stand in stark contrast with their peers. Over 40 percent of Brunonians are so radically pro-choice that 79 percent of all pro-choice supporters disagree with them.

Not only do the vast majority of Americans find the typical Brown student’s views to be extreme, but no country in the western world supports third-trimester abortions.

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