Poll: 72 Percent of Americans Oppose Paying for Abortions in Health Care Bill
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 22, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new poll shows 72 percent of Americans oppose paying for abortions with their tax dollars under the government-run health care bill in Congress. As the Senate prepares to vote on legislation that contains massive abortion funding, a Quinnipiac University survey released today shows opposition.
American voters mostly disapprove of the pro-abortion health care bill, by a 53-36 percent margin.
They also disapprove of pro-abortion President Barack Obama’s handling of the health care issue by a similar 56-38 percent margin, the new survey showed.
But abortion funding draws strenuous opposition from the American public, regardless of political persuasion, with 72 percent saying they oppose "using any public money in the health care overhaul to pay for abortions" and just 23 percent saying they favor it.
The poll found Republicans oppose funding abortions in the health care bill an a 91-5 percent clip, Democrats oppose it 54-38 percent, and independents oppose it 74-23 percent.
Men oppose taxpayer funded abortions on a 73-21 percent margin while women also oppose it by a 70-25 percent margin. Whites opposed it 72-23 percent while blacks oppose abortion funding 67-20 percent.
Younger voters were the most supportive of abortion funding in health care but still opposed it 69-28, voters 35-54 opposed it 72-20 and older voters 55 and up opposed it 72-22.
The Quinnipaic poll found upper income voters were more likely to support taxpayer funded abortions than those making less. Liberals were the only category to support abortion funding while moderates and conservatives opposed it.
Evangelicals opposed funding 91-6, Protestants opposed it 80-15 and Catholics opposed it by a 75-21 percent clip.
Looking at the health care plan, independent voters disapprove of it on a 58-30 percent margin, Republicans on an 83-10 percent margin and Democrats approve it 64-22.
"As President Barack Obama’s numbers on health care have declined so has his margin over Republicans on whom American voters trust most on the issue," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "In July he enjoyed a 20-point edge on the trust question, and that margin has been narrowing, to 45-40 percent today."
Brown added that "allowing the use of public money for the procedure under a national health care plan, which has been a matter of some dispute in both houses of Congress, is extremely unpopular." \
Prior surveys also show Americans oppose abortion funding in health care.
A November survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found 55% majority of Americans say that abortion should not be included as a guaranteed medical benefit if the government health care reform plan passes.
That follows a CNN poll showing 61 percent of Americans saying abortion funding should not be included.
Conducted by International Communications Research from September 16-20, another poll showed 67 percent of those surveyed opposed requiring people to pay for abortion coverage through their taxes.
Public Opinion Strategies found 58% of Americans disagree with the statement, “If the government is going to make a public health plan available for all Americans it has an obligation to provide abortion services under that plan.” Just 38 percent support it.
And a more recent Rasmussen poll found a plurality of Americans don’t want abortion funding in the health care bills.
The survey showed 48% believe any government-subsidized health care plan should be prohibited from covering abortions. Just 13 percent want the health care bills to make it a requirement that abortions are funded.
The Quinnipiac poll comes after a new CNN poll indicating a solid majority of Americans oppose the health care bill that Democrats are pushing through the Senate.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday that indicated 42 percent favor the Senate Democrats’ legislation, with 56 percent opposed.
Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,616 registered voters nationwide for the poll form December 15-20.
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