CNN Poll: 61% Oppose Tax-Funded Abortions, 63% Oppose All or Most Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 18, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — As Congress remains embroiled in a massive debate over whether to force Americans to pay for abortions through the new government-run health care programs, a new CNN poll finds 61 percent oppose government funding abortions with public dollars.
The poll found six in ten Americans favor a ban on using federal funds for abortions, such as the Stupak amendment recently added to the health care bill in the House.
The new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released today shows 61 percent oppose taxpayer funding of abortions while just 37 percent are supportive.
The CNN poll goes further and finds that a majority of Americans, by a 51 to 45 percent margin, believe women should be required to use their own money to pay for abortions even if they have private health insurance and no government money is involved. They did not think health insurance should pay for abortions.
CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said that the poll results show "for most Americans, potential restrictions on abortion may not be a dealbreaker" in supporting the health care bill.
The CNN survey has important implications for Congress as the Senate begins debating a bill that will likely fund abortions and as pro-abortion President Barack Obama threatens to yank the abortion funding ban from the House bill.
The poll also asked a vague question about when Americans support or oppose abortions.
The question, "Do you think abortion should be legal in most circumstances or only a few circumstances?" doesn’t lend itself to any constructive analysis because it does not spell out what circumstances constitute "most" or "a few." Other polls breaking down when women have abortions find about 55 percent of Americans oppose 98 percent of all abortions.
In the new CNN survey, 26 percent said abortions should be legal under any circumstances, 23 percent said abortions should be illegal under any circumstances and 50 percent said they should only be legal under certain circumstances.
If those certain circumstances are defined as the very rare cases of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is threatened by the pregnancy, then 73 percent of Americans oppose 98 percent of the 1.2 million abortions that take place every year in the United States.
A second CNN question validates that contention.
It found 63 percent of Americans say abortion should be illegal in all cases or only in a few cases while just 36 percent say abortion should be legal in most cases or in all cases.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted November 13-15, with 1,014 adult Americans questioned by telephone.
Related web sites:
CNN poll results – https://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/17/rel17f.pdf
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