Another Poll Shows Majority Oppose Abortion Funding in Health Care Legislation
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 19, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Another poll this week is showing that a majority of Americans oppose including government funding of abortions in the Congressional health care legislation. The poll also shows that the pro-life perspective is critical as a majority of opponents of the health care reform bills cite abortion as a critical concern.
A new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds 42% in favor and 39% opposed to the health care bill.
Pew asked: "If the government health care reform plan guarantees certain medical benefits for all Americans, do you think that abortion should or should not be included as one of those benefits?"
A 55% majority of Americans say that abortion should not be included as a guaranteed medical benefit if the government health care reform plan passes. Only 28 percent say it should be included while 11 percent said it "depends" and 6 percent did not know.
That follows a CNN poll showing 61 percent of Americans saying abortion funding should not be included.
Abortion funding is not popular with Americans regardless of whether they support or oppose the health care bill, the Pew poll shows.
than seven-in-ten (72%) of those who oppose the legislation say coverage of abortion should not be included in government benefits. But, even among Americans who favor health care reform, a 46% plurality says abortion should not be included in government benefits, while 35% say it should.
The pew poll also found that abortion is included in the main reasons why Americans oppose the health care bill, among concerns over growing government, its financial impact and worries about their own health care.
For opponents of the bill, 56 percent say the issue of government funds paying for abortions is a “major reason” they oppose the bill.
The Pew poll found white evangelical Protestants (74%) and white Catholics (72%) were more likely than white mainline Protestant opponents of reform to say that abortion funding was a major reason for their views.
Weekly churchgoers were five time more likely to say abortion is a main reason for them opposing the bill as those who attend church less often.
Religious views motivate not only opposition to the bill but opposition to abortion funding as well, with 84% of white evangelical Protestants saying they oppose abortion funding with tax money as do 63% of white Catholics.
The poll also found a strong drop in opposition to making it more difficult to get abortions.
Whereas the Pew poll found, by a 50-41 percent margin, Americans not wanting to make abortions more difficult to get, that 9 percent pro-abortion margin shrank to three percent in the new poll, where Americans oppose it 43-40.
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