A new survey suggests that “large majorities” of Americans favor
several types of abortion restrictions, including waiting periods,
parental notification and informed consent laws.
However, they are less
likely to support a ban on federal funds for abortion providers or
opt-out laws for pro-life pharmacists and health providers.
“We have known for some time that the American public is supportive
of restrictions and understand that those restrictions are necessary to
protect women and the unborn,” said Mailee Smith, staff counsel for
Americans United for Life.
It was “affirming and encouraging” that Americans support some of the restrictions, she added.
A July Gallup survey of 1,020 U.S. adults asked their opinions of several abortion laws.
Eighty-seven percent favored requiring doctors to inform patients
about possible risks of abortion before performing the procedure, while
71 percent favored requiring parental consent for women under 18 for any
abortion.
Sixty-nine percent favored a 24-hour waiting period before a
woman has an abortion, while 64 percent favored a ban on “partial birth
abortion,” except to save the life of the mother.
However, only 50 percent favored requiring that a woman be shown an
ultrasound image of her unborn child at least 24 hours before an
abortion.
Fifty-one percent opposed a law allowing pharmacists and
health providers to decline providing medicine or surgical procedures
that result in abortion, while 57 percent opposed a prohibition on
federal funds for health clinics that provide abortion services.
Smith said it was “a little discouraging” that a majority of
respondents do not support conscience protections and bans on federal
funding for abortion providers.
She suggested more education efforts are
needed in those areas.
“There is a lot of mistaken understanding and misinformation about
the so-called abortion rights in political and judicial circles. There
is a misunderstanding of how harmful abortion is to the woman,” she
continued.
“There tends to be a general belief that women need abortion in order
to advance a career or have the type of life that they want to have,
and that pregnancy takes away from that.”
“Study after study after study has demonstrated that not only the
physical risks of having an abortion, but the psychological risks, and
the consequences involved,” she said, citing the “substantial risk” of
pre-term birth in a subsequent pregnancy of a woman who has had an
abortion.
There are now more abortion restrictions than there were in 1973 when
the Supreme Court imposed permissive abortion laws nationwide, Smith
noted.
“Contrary to the time when Roe v. Wade was decided, now 31 states now
have informed consent laws in place. Thirty-seven states have parental
involvement laws in place, such as parental consent or parental
notification,” she said.
“Thirty-eight states have fetal homicide laws,
which punish as a crime the homicide of an unborn child, separate from
the abortion issue.”
“As states enact these laws, the rate of abortion goes down in these
states,” Smith added, noting that the abortion rate declines between 13
to 25 percent in a state with parental involvement restrictions.
“We see that these restrictions are having a very positive effect on
the number of women who are getting the proper facts before abortion and
choosing to carry their children to term.”
Gallup found a significant partisan difference in respondents.
Republicans were much more likely to favor restrictions on abortion,
while independents were somewhat less likely to favor such laws.
Democrats were most opposed to abortion restrictions.
“The partisan breakdown would not be unexpected,” Smith said.
However, she noted that some restrictions, even the partial-birth abortion ban, were supported by a majority of Democrats.
“If the general public, if the politicians, if Republicans and
Democrats and independents, understood how harmful abortion is for
women, there would be more support for abortion restrictions.”
Only 35 percent of respondents to a June Gallup survey said abortion
should be illegal in the first three months of pregnancy, a figure which
rose to 71 percent in the second three months of pregnancy and to 86
percent in the last three months, a June Gallup survey said.