Poll Shows California Still Largely Pro-Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 30, 2003
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) — California remains one of the most steadfastly pro-abortion states in the country, according to a new Field Poll. The results show that more than two-thirds of Californians favor keeping abortion legal or making it more readily available.
Some 21 percent want to make abortion "easier to obtain," 47 percent want to "make no changes" to current pro-abortion laws, while 26 percent favor making abortion "harder to obtain."
However, others poll show Californians favor pro-life laws such as parental notification.
One of the few pieces of good news from the poll is that the number of people who support common sense legislation to limit abortion is increasing.
The number of people who favor making abortion "easier to obtain" is down 6 percent from last year while the number who want to make abortion "harder to obtain" is up three percent.
Mike Spence of the California Pro-Life Council said the poll "shows there are a lot of people who don’t understand how easy it is to obtain an abortion in California. There are no restrictions."
California has long been one of the most pro-abortion states and was one of only a few states to legalize abortion prior to the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
As expected, Democrats and liberal favor abortion more so than Republicans and conservatives.
Overwhelming majorities of Democrats (78%) and liberals (87%) want no changes made to existing abortion laws or favor legislation which would make it easier for a woman to have an abortion. By contrast, about one-half (47%) of Republicans and 51% of conservatives want to change laws to make it harder to get an abortion.
Contrary to the claims of abortion advocates, men and women had almost no difference in their views on abortion.
Residents of the Los Angeles and Bay Area parts of the state are the strongest abortion supporters while residents who live elsewhere are more open to pro-life legislation.
Whites, middle-aged voters and non-religious persons were more open to abortion while Hispanics, young adults, and Protestant voters were less tolerant.
About half (45%) of all voters statewide say it is very important and 38% say it is somewhat important for a candidate seeking a high state or national office to hold a position similar to their own on the issue of abortion.
Pro-life respondents, however, were more likely to say that they prefer a candidate who holds similar abortion views while those favoring no changes in the law were least likely.
The results in this report are based on a statewide survey of 490 registered voters in California. The survey was completed during the period July 1-13, 2003 by telephone in English and Spanish.
