3 out of 4 Pro-Choice Americans Favor Abortion Regulations Struck Down by Supreme Court
A new poll shows that about three-quarters of pro-choice Americans agree that abortion clinics should be held to the same safety standards as other surgical centers, showing that last month's Supreme Court decision striking down components of a pro-life Texas law is out of step with the American public.
A Marist poll released Monday morning and commissioned by the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus finds that 78 percent of all Americans and 74 percent of pro-choice Americans believe that abortion clinics should be held to the same safety standards that other outpatient surgical centers must comply with.
Meanwhile, 77 percent of African-Americans and 82 percent of Hispanics also agree that abortion facilities need to be held to those same standards.
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Additionally, seven in 10 Americans believe that doctors who perform abortions should be required to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of the abortion clinic. According to the research, 71 percent of those who identify as pro-choice and 71 percent of women believe doctors should be required to have admitting privileges to a hopsital within 30 miles of the clinic.
The poll's findings come after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month to strike down key components of Texas' HB 2, which regulated abortion clinics as surgical centers and also forced abortionists to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals in order to protect the safety of women in case complications arise during abortion procedures.
Opponents of the Texas law argued that the legislation forced abortion clinics and abortionists who can't comply with those requirements to close down, thus limiting access to "women's health care." However, supporters of the legislation argue that the Supreme Court's ruling effectively gives the abortion industry a "free pass" when it comes to ensuring the safety of women.
"The American people have spoken clearly on their desire for abortion restrictions, less taxpayer funding of it, and common sense regulations on this industry to protect women's health," Knights of Columbus CEO and Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in a statement. "Our courts, politicians, candidates and parties should heed this consensus."
The poll includes responses from over 1,009 adults in the continental United States, who were interviewed over the phone from July 5-12. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The poll also shows that 78 percent of Americans favor placing restrictions on abortion that would limit the legality of the procedure to just the first three months of gestation, thus banning late-term abortions.
Included in the 78 percent of Americans who favor limits on abortion are 62 percent of Americans who identify as pro-choice, 85 percent of African-Americans and 84 percent of Hispanics.
While pro-choice politicians and abortion lobbyists like to paint any supporters of abortion restrictions as being involved in a "war on women," Marist's Barbara Carvalho points out in a statement that those who fight against restrictions on abortion are going against the grain of the American public.
"The majority of Americans in favor of abortion restrictions has been consistently around 8 in 10 for the better part of a decade," Carvalho, the director of the poll, stated. "Though self-identification as pro-life or pro-choice can vary substantially from year to year, the support for restrictions is quite stable."
As it was reported earlier this year that the Obama administration is pushing a rule to force doctors and medical institutions who receive federal funds to conduct abortions despite any religious beliefs they may have against the procedure, the Marist poll finds that a majority (56 percent) of Americans don't believe health care providers should be coerced into conducting abortions. Forty-one percent of pro-choice Americans also don't believe doctors should be forced to violate their conscience on abortion.
Earlier this year, legislation called the Conscience Protection Act was introduced in Congress that would protect the religious freedom rights of doctors, health care professionals and medical providers to obey their convictions and not conduct abortions. The legislation has over 100 co-sponsors in the House and nine co-sponsors in the Senate.
