{"id":204692,"date":"2019-06-14T17:14:37","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T22:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=204692"},"modified":"2019-06-15T11:30:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T16:30:36","slug":"polls-majority-women-dont-want-taxpayer-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/polls-majority-women-dont-want-taxpayer-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Slate: Polls show majority, including women, oppose taxpayer-funded abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At Slate<\/a>, writer William Saletan admits that taxpayer funding of abortion — which every Democratic presidential candidate is currently supporting — is a wildly unpopular idea in America, even among women. “Recent polls debunk much of what progressives believe,” the subheading of Saletan’s article reads. For years, polling has shown that taxpayers are solidly against paying for other people’s abortions.<\/p>\n

While taxpayer-funded abortion is an idea that appeals to the Democratic Party’s political base, it doesn’t appeal to voters in general. “In every poll, a plurality of Americans opposes<\/a> public funding of abortions,” Saletan notes. “In every poll but one<\/a>, that plurality is a majority. The questions vary, but the result is the same.”<\/p>\n

Saletan lays out the specifics<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Respondents support \u201cbanning federal funding for abortion\u201d except in rape cases or to save the woman\u2019s life (<\/i>Politico\/Morning Consult<\/a>, 2019). They believe that \u201cgovernment health insurance programs for low-income women, like Medicaid,\u201d should not \u201ccover abortion\u201d (<\/i>PRRI<\/a>, 2018). They oppose \u201cusing tax dollars to\u00a0pay for a woman’s abortion<\/a><\/i>\u201d (Marist<\/a>, 2019). They oppose allowing \u201cMedicaid funds to be used to pay for abortions\u201d (Politico\/Harvard<\/a>, 2016). When they\u2019re told that \u201cthe Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funds from being used to fund abortions, except in the case of incest, rape or to save the life of the mother,\u201d they endorse the amendment (YouGov<\/a>, 2016). <\/em><\/p>\n

These polls aren\u2019t close. The average gap between the pro-funding and anti-funding positions is 19 percentage points.<\/em><\/p>\n

Do lower income Americans want taxpayer-funded abortions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abortion advocates have framed this debate as the rich and privileged vs. the poor and struggling — but this doesn’t add up. Saletan writes, “Many opponents of the Hyde Amendment [which prevents federal taxpayer funds from paying for abortion] see it as a class issue,” but most lower income Americans actually don’t support<\/em> taxpayer-funded abortion:<\/p>\n

Many opponents of the Hyde Amendment see it as a class issue. That\u2019s how a Biden adviser made the case in pressing the former vice president to change his position<\/a>. But there\u2019s little evidence that people of limited means see it that way. In the 2017 Marist poll, among people with annual incomes of $50,000 or more, the margin of opposition to tax-funded abortions was 16 percentage points. Among people who earned less than $50,000, the margin of opposition was 32 points. In the YouGov poll, respondents with lower incomes were less likely than respondents with higher incomes to support federal and state funding of abortions. And in the Harvard poll, support for Medicaid funding of abortion was almost twice as high among voters who earned more than $75,000 as among voters who earned $25,000 or less.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Biden jumped aboard the ‘repeal the Hyde Amendment’ train, he actually lost support among voters as a whole, reports Saletan. “A pro-funding position, on balance, probably does more to hurt the candidate in a general election than to help in a Democratic primary,” he says.<\/p>\n

So while many abortion supporters believe that “If you don’t support abortion funding, you’re not really pro-choice,” Saletan says “nearly half of pro-choicers disagree…. A lot of people seem to think that the right to choose abortion is compatible with the right not to pay for other people’s abortions.”<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Banning taxpayer-funded abortion has saved 2 million lives. Democrats don\u2019t like it.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n