California Poll Finds Support for Parental Notice on Abortion Despite Ballot Votes

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 26, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

California Poll Finds Support for Parental Notice on Abortion Despite Ballot Votes

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 26
, 2009

Sacaramento, CA (LifeNews.com) — California voters may have defeated a parental notification measure on the state ballot on three separate occasions, but a new poll finds support for such a law. A new survey shows California residents want parents to be informed when their minor daughter is considering an abortion.

The Public Policy Institute of California released the results of a survey showing a majority of voters favored the idea.

In a telephone survey with 2,502 Californians, some 68 percent favored requiring abortion businesses to notify a parent or guardian when a minor girl considers an abortion.

The poll found support for the pro-life limit on abortions regardless of age, political party, or socioeconomic status.

Polling data on parental notification has always been at odds with the ballot vote, and polls prior to November’s defeat of the third notification initiative showed it ahead. However, after Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates spent millions misinforming state voters on the ballot question, it went down in defeat.

The survey could also be an indication that voters are warming up more to the parental notification idea.

The percentage of voters who opposed parental notification shrank last year with 52 percent opposing it as opposed to 54 percent opposing it in 2005 and 56 percent in 2006.

Mark Baldassare, the president and survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California, told the Associated Press that parental notification has been presented differently when voters consider it rather than when it is considered in general.

"When it’s reached the ballot box, it’s been framed as a political issue and a partisan issue," Baldassare said. "There tends to be a significant drop-off among Democratic voters when they get to the polls."

The survey also found California voters are also less inclined to oppose abortion limits in general.

The poll found 61 percent of Californians oppose abortion limits, but that is down from 71 percent in the same poll in 2000. Support for limits moved up from 27 percent to 35 percent.

Republicans and Hispanics were more likely to support abortion limits while Democrats, blacks and Asians were less likely.

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