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Poll: 59% Say Abortion Ends a Human Life
Federal candidates who make abortion rights an important part of their election platform this year and in 2008 may find themselves swimming against the current of American political thinking, a new Zogby Interactive survey shows. The survey, commissioned by Associated Television News and The O'Leary Report, included 30,117 respondents in the 48 contiguous states, and was conducted from March 10-14, 2006. It carries a margin of error of +/- 0.6 percentage points. The poll included 20 questions on abortion pertaining to activity on the state or federal level. Analysis of the survey included matching the responses against those respondents who said they'd support the two presumptive leading candidates for the 2008 presidential contest: Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton (33%) and Republican Senator John McCain (50%). More analysis was conducted by matching the poll respondents who indicated that they'd support a Democrat (42%) or a Republican (40%) for Congress in the 2006 election. Pollster John Zogby noted that "while much of the poll's findings suggest Democrats will have trouble gaining a political advantage by using the emotionally charged issue of abortion, voters are still evenly split on whether the U.S. Constitution guarantees a woman's right to choose to have an abortion."
Story Continues Below Forty-six percent of the respondents agreed that there was a constitutional guarantee while 45% disagreed. Associated Television News President Brad O'Leary, who commissioned the poll, added that much of the results may "spell disaster for Democrats who try to run on the abortion issue. The abortion issue is this year's political 'third rail' for congressional Democrats and for Hillary Clinton in 2008," said O'Leary. O'Leary speculated that the recent confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sam Alito and John Roberts may have galvanized undecided voters into the pro-life camp. He noted that 71% of voters disagreed that the Senate should confirm only pro-choice Supreme Court Justices, while just 17% agreed with the statement. Asked whether respondents favored using a filibuster of Supreme Court nominees because of their position on abortion, only 28% agreed with the tactic, while 59% opposed it. Abortion may become to Democrats what Social Security was to Republicans during the 1970s and 1980s - a "third rail" that caused the GOP ongoing political trouble. "There is absolutely no way a presidential or a congressional candidate running for office can grow their base if they insist on championing the abortion issue," Mr. O'Leary said. The poll found a majority of respondents on 16 of the 20 questions took an anti-abortion position, including: The poll results suggest a shift in the electorate away from abortion rights over the past decade, Mr. O'Leary said. They also suggest that congressional Democrats who champion abortion rights could lose as much as 20 percent support from the electorate. The issue may affect the 2008 presidential contest, the poll shows, as 60% to 80% percent of Hillary Clinton's support on most of the 20 abortion questions clearly comes from those voters who favor abortion rights. Conversely, 75% to 90% percent of those voters who support John McCain take a pro-life position on the questions.
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