Poll: 67 Percent of Americans Oppose Funding Abortion in Health Care Bill
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 14, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new Quinnipiac University poll finds 67 percent of Americans oppose funding abortions with government funds under the government-run health care bill pending in Congress. This is the latest of several recent polls all showing a majority of Americans oppose tax-funded abortions.
The new survey asked: "Do you support or oppose allowing abortions to be paid for by public funds under a health care reform bill?"
Some 67 percent of respondents said no while just 27 percent sided with President Barack Obama and pro-abortion groups favoring abortion funding.
Republicans were opposed to funding on a 87-10 percent margin as were independent voters on a 67-26 percent margin. Democrats were split 47-47 percent on abortion funding in the health care reform legislation.
Quinnipiac found men and women about even on the question of opposing abortion funding with men opposing it 65-29 and women oppose it 68-26 percent.
White Americans opposed abortion funding on a 70-24 percent margin, while blacks oppose it 52-41 percent. Older and middle-aged voters were opposed on about the same margins while younger voters under 30 opposed it but by a slightly smaller percentage.
Upper income Americans were less opposed to abortion funding than lower income and middle income Americans. Conservatives and moderates opposed abortion funding at higher rates than liberals and evangelicals and Protestants were more opposed to funding than Catholics.
Even those who said they favor keeping all or most abortions legal opposed abortion funding by a 49-45 percentage point margin.
The results run similar to the December 22 Quinnipiac poll, which found Americans opposed abortion funding at a 72-23 percentage point clip. https://www.lifenews.com/nat5804.html
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.
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