{"id":286071,"date":"2023-03-07T10:39:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T16:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=286071"},"modified":"2023-03-06T16:28:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T22:28:00","slug":"outlier-poll-abortion-support-pill-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/outlier-poll-abortion-support-pill-investors\/","title":{"rendered":"Outlier poll showing surge in abortion support was funded by abortion pill investors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A newly released\u00a0PRRI poll<\/a>\u00a0showed<\/a> an apparent increase in public sentiment for “abortion rights” \u2014 but a closer look at the poll’s financial backers reveals that it was\u00a0funded<\/a> by the\u00a0David and Lucile Packard Foundation, a pro-abortion philanthropist group invested in abortion pill manufacturers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro.<\/p>\n

In addition, while the poll<\/a> inquired about the abortion pill, it did not specify whether it disclosed this fact to those surveyed.<\/p>\n

The poll<\/a>, “Abortion Attitudes in a Post-Roe World,” posed a range of questions to 22,894 adults, commissioned between March 2022 and December 2022.<\/p>\n

“Support for legal abortion isn\u2019t limited to Democratic-majority states. Majorities of Americans in 43 states and the District of Columbia say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, and in 13 states plus the District, more than 7 in 10 residents support legalization,”\u00a0the Public Religion Research Institute <\/a>poll<\/a>\u00a0claimed.<\/p>\n

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PRRI Poll funded by abortion pill investor Packard Foundation<\/p><\/div>\n

The poll’s results were heavily covered by pro-abortion leaning media, prompting Dr. Michael New \u2014 a Research Associate of Political Science and Social Research at The Catholic University of America, and an Associate Scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) \u2014 to claim that “Unfortunately, this is just another sad example of the mainstream media amplifying the results of an abortion poll whose wording produces a result they support.”<\/p>\n

In comparison,\u00a0a\u00a02023 Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll<\/a>\u00a0found<\/a> that 69% of Americans surveyed said they wanted abortion to be significantly restricted, including\u00a0 a majority of those who identified as “pro-choice” on abortion.<\/p>\n

Yet, the latest PRRI poll found that in 43 states, majorities thought that abortion should be legal in \u201cmost cases\u201d or in \u201call cases.\u201d And according to Dr. New, “had PRRI used different wording for the pro-life options, the results would have likely shown much greater opposition to abortion.”<\/p>\n

The poll also found that among other things, “A slim majority of Americans oppose restrictions that make it illegal to obtain an abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy (44% favor vs. 52% oppose).” It also allegedly found that, “About one in four Americans (26%) favor laws that make it illegal to use or receive through the mail FDA-approved drugs for a medical abortion, also known as the abortion pill. About seven in ten Americans (72%) oppose such laws.”\u00a0Dr. New’s full analysis is\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Since PRRI last conducted a state-level analysis in 2018, residents in nearly all 50 states are more likely to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases,” the poll stated<\/a>. PRRI’s latest poll<\/a>\u00a0was “conducted among a random sample of 22,984 adults (age 18 and up) living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the United States. Among those, 20,603 are part of Ipsos\u2019s Knowledge Panel<\/a> and an additional 2,381 were recruited by Ipsos using opt-in survey panels to increase the sample sizes in smaller states,” the 2022 poll reads.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, in January of 2023, Ipsos found<\/a> that “many Americans are incorrect or uninformed about facts surrounding abortion.” That NPR\/Ipsos poll, which had a much smaller sample size than PRRI’s 2022 poll, also found<\/a> that a sizeable number of those polled got news from abortion-favorable media.<\/p>\n

Who conducted the poll?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The “PRRI team” included\u00a0the founder and CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, Robert P. Jones, who appears to show bias against potential pro-life survey participants by\u00a0suggesting<\/a> on his blog that there is a “Connection between Opposition to Abortion and the Broader White Christian Nationalist Agenda.”<\/p>\n

Jones points to statistics that presume to show that “those leading and bankrolling these efforts are largely conservative white Christians, and disproportionately white evangelical Protestants.”<\/p>\n

He conveniently fails to mention how the pro-abortion movement has been historically<\/a> organized<\/a>, founded<\/a>, funded<\/a> and led<\/a> by white elites who were often associated with the racist ideology of eugenics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another member of the PRRI poll team is Senior Research Associate Ian Huff, who has described himself on his Twitter page as a “Professional question-asker @PRRIpoll.”<\/a><\/p>\n

Huff is also strongly pro-abortion, as evidenced by his tweets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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My life is unequivocally better because many people I'm close to had access to abortion when they needed it. https:\/\/t.co\/qL2EYql2HT<\/a><\/p>\n

— Ian Huff (@Real_Ian_Huff) May 3, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n