New York Residents Strongly Back Abortion, Unlike Most Americans 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 9, 2005
Albany, NY (LifeNews.com) — A new poll shows New York residents continue to strongly support abortion — a position that has state residents at odds with the rest of the country.
Conducted by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, the poll found 62 percent of New Yorkers back abortion while 31 percent say most or all abortions should be illegal.
Specifically, 25 percent believed abortion should always be legal while 37 percent said it should be legal in most cases. Of those taking a pro-life position, 20 percent said abortion should be illegal in most cases and 11 percent said it should always be illegal.
Eight percent of those polled refused to answer the question or hadn’t made up their minds.
The polling results show a slight move towards the pro-life position as 66 percent of New York residents backed abortion in a March 2003 Quinnipiac poll. Some 29 percent took a pro-life position against abortion then.
Though they support abortion, most New York residents strongly favor laws that would reduce the number of abortions.
Seventy percent said they back parental notification before a teenager can have an abortion, 64 percent want a 24 hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed, and 66 percent said they believed partial-birth abortions should be banned.
New York was one of the first states to make abortions legal and one of only a handful that legalized abortion prior to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
The state has always leaned in favor of abortion — a position that conflicts with the pro-life stance of most Americans.
Last month, a Los Angeles Times poll found 53 percent of Americans said they oppose all or most all abortions while just 43 percent said abortion should always or almost always be illegal.
Quinnipiac’s telephone poll of 1,218 registered voters was conducted Feb. 3-7 and has a 3 percent margin of error.
Related web sites:
New York State Right to Life – https://www.nysrighttolife.org
