New Poll: Americans oppose using religion to deny reproductive health services

[cbayer]

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/25/4938508/new-poll-americans-oppose-using.html

By Catholics for Choice
Published: Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012 - 10:31 am

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2012 -- /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

A new poll, jointly commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union and Catholics for Choice, shows that Americans reject policies that allow institutions to refuse to provide reproductive health services on religious grounds.

Key findings:

The great majority of Americans (81%) believe that the law should not allow companies or other institutions to use religious beliefs to decide whether to offer a service to some people and not others.
77% of Americans, and an equal proportion of Catholics, object to pharmacies refusing to fill birth control prescriptions.
87% of Americans (and a similar percentage of Catholics), say that a doctor should not be allowed to withhold information about fetal defects for fear a woman might consider an abortion.
62% of Americans and 59% of Catholics oppose allowing a Catholic hospital to decline to perform an abortion that is medically necessary to protect a woman's health.
88% of Americans and 86% of Catholics believe voters don't have an obligation to follow a Catholic bishop's recommendation on how to vote. 79% of Americans and 75% of Catholics believe Catholic politicians don't have an obligation to follow the hierarchy's directives.

John Russonello, a partner at Belden Russonello Strategists LLC who carried out the poll, said, "The survey makes it clear that most Americans believe that a person in a health-related field should not be allowed to deny a service because of his or her religious beliefs. The poll should put an end to the discussion of how much political influence the Catholic bishops have. It demonstrated overwhelmingly that American Catholics do not feel any obligation to follow the bishops on politics."

Sara Hutchinson, domestic program director at Catholics for Choice, said, "This poll comes at an important time as the bishops ramp up their opposition to contraceptive coverage. It shows the rift between what the bishops would like all of us to think and what Americans and American Catholics actually think."


Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/25/4938508/new-poll-americans-oppose-using.html#storylink=cpy

[skepticscott]

1. Now if they'd just stop electing people

To state and national legislatures who ram through bills in direct opposition to all of that, we'd be fine. Until they do, until our legislatures reflect these viewpoints in similar percentages, the results of these surveys aren't much to get excited about.

[trotsky]

2. Problem is, that 20-25% who are ok with all those things are the Republican base.

And while a whole bunch of other people aren't OK, they are willing to overlook those things for other promises the Repub party makes.

Sometimes you just gotta step back and admire the Republican PR machine, what masters they are at paying lip service to enough people's hot button issue that they will disregard everything else in the platform that completely screws them over, such as Republican tax policy & social spending, which of course is the hot button issue for the wealthy.