We commissioned a poll to ask Idahoans about abortion. Here’s what we learned
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Idaho Statesman/SurveyUSA poll series
We commissioned a statewide poll through SurveyUSA on abortion access, LGBTQ rights, medical marijuana, education spending, DACA and election fraud. Read the results here.
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A new poll commissioned by the Idaho Statesman shows Idaho residents are nearly evenly split on whether abortion should be legal in the state.
The poll, performed by independent research company SurveyUSA, asked 550 Idaho adults several questions about abortion. That included whether they believed it should be legal in all cases, legal with some limitations, illegal with some exceptions (in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother) or illegal in all cases. The poll also asked respondents whether doctors should face criminal charges for performing abortions or whether women should be criminally charged for having an abortion.
Just more than half of the respondents said they believe abortion should be legal in all cases (26%) or with some limitations (25%) — a total of 51%. Forty-six percent said they believe abortion should be illegal in most cases, with most of those (33% of respondents) supporting exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. Six percent said abortion should be illegal with the only exception being to save the life of the mother. Seven percent said it should be illegal in all situations, and 3% weren’t sure.
[View the complete results here]
Idaho residents are less in favor of legal abortion than other Americans. A Pew survey conducted in July shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade showed 61% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
The Idaho survey results come as the Idaho Supreme Court is weighing the legality of a near-total abortion ban and other abortion-related legislation. The justices have been deliberating since Oct. 6 on three consolidated cases, each contested by Planned Parenthood. They include a ban that has made abortion illegal in Idaho since mid-August except in instances where doctors deem it necessary to save a pregnant person’s life, or in cases of rape or incest that have been reported to police; a law banning abortion after a “fetal heartbeat,” or electrical activity, is detected in early pregnancy; and a 2022 bill that would allow some family members to sue doctors who provide abortions.
The abortion polling results were part of a statewide Idaho Statesman/SurveyUSA poll on several contentious issues in Idaho. Results on questions related to marijuana, LGBTQ rights, education spending and other topics will be released throughout the week at IdahoStatesman.com. The poll was conducted Oct. 17-20 online and by phone, with the pool of adults surveyed weighted to U.S. Census targets for gender, age, race, education and home ownership.
When should abortion be legal, according to Idahoans?
Poll respondents were asked specifically about whether they believe abortion should be legal in instances of each of the exceptions to Idaho’s abortion ban. Their responses were mixed, with 88% saying the procedure should be legal to save the life of the mother, 85% saying it should be legal to preserve the health of the mother, 80% saying it should be legal in cases of rape and 69% saying it should be legal in instances of incest.
Idahoans also spoke out overwhelmingly (71%) against allowing family members to sue people who help a woman get an abortion, even potentially family members of rapists. Just 12% of respondents said they were in favor of allowing family to sue.
Poll respondents also weighed possible criminal penalties for abortion. A majority (61%) said doctors who perform abortions should not face criminal charges. A similar number (62%) said women who have abortions should not face criminal charges. Even more (72%) said a woman who travels to another state for a legal abortion should not face consequences when returning to Idaho.
Republican Idaho lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill last spring to allow family members to sue medical professionals who provide abortions. Eighty percent of the Senate voted in favor of the bill, along with 72% of the House of Representatives.
Who is for, against legal abortion?
Women and men were equally in favor of making abortion legal in Idaho, with 50% of all women polled saying abortion should always be legal or be legal with some limitations. Fifty-one percent of men said the same. Women were more likely (29% versus 22% of men) to say abortion should always be legal. Women were also slightly more likely than men to say abortion should always be illegal (9% versus 6% of men) or to say they were unsure (5% versus 2% of men).
That’s in contrast to Pew’s national numbers, which showed 66% of women in favor of legal abortion in most or all cases, with 57% percent of men saying the same.
Idaho respondents also bucked a national trend when it came to ages of people who believe abortion should be legal. Pew found 70% of adults ages 18 to 29 were in favor of legal abortion. In Idaho, 55% of the youngest age group, people 18 to 34, said abortion should be legal always or with some limitations. The oldest age group, people 65 and older, were just slightly more in favor of legal abortion, with 56% saying they believe it should be legal. The middle age groups (35 to 49 and 50 to 64) fell about 10 percentage points lower in favor of legal abortion. Nearly half of 50- to 64-year-olds (44%) said abortion should be illegal except in instances of rape, incest or threat to the mother.
Hispanic poll respondents (46%) were roughly as likely as white respondents (51%) to be in favor of legal abortion. But 44% of Hispanics said abortion should be illegal with exceptions for rape, incest and mother’s health. Just 32% of white respondents said the same. White respondents were more likely to be in favor of more restrictive abortion policies, with 6% saying the only exception should be for the life of the mother (versus 3% of Hispanics), and 7% of white respondents saying abortion should always be illegal (versus 5% of Hispanics).
In line with national trends, Idahoans who identified as Democrats (79%) or independents (69%) were more in favor of legal abortion than those who identified as Republicans (35%). Republican respondents (44%) were most likely to support making abortion illegal with exceptions for rape, incest and the mother’s health, and they were more likely than Democrats and independents to support more restrictive abortion laws. Eight percent of Republican respondents said abortion should be legal only to save the mother’s life, versus 1% of Democrats and 6% of independents; and 9% of Republicans said abortion should always be illegal, versus 6% of Democrats and 4% of independents.
Respondents from Ada and Canyon counties were more likely than people from other parts of Idaho to be in favor of legal abortion. Sixty-six percent of Ada County respondents said abortion should be legal or legal with limitations, along with 56% of Canyon County respondents. In the rest of the state, just 47% of respondents fit that category.
What Planned Parenthood, Idaho Family Policy Center say
The Statesman reached out Monday to two organizations that have played major roles in Idaho’s abortion policies to hear their thoughts on the poll results: Planned Parenthood Great Northwest Hawai‘i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, which provided abortions and is the plaintiff in the three cases in the Supreme Court; and the Idaho Family Policy Center, a Christian lobbyist group that helped draft the 2022 SB 1309 that allows for civil lawsuits against abortion providers.
In an email, Planned Parenthood communications manager Mack Smith said the poll results show a gap between lawmakers’ actions and Idahoans’ values.
“This summer, the Idaho Republican Party approved an updated platform that opposes any exception to Idaho’s abortion ban — that means outlawing abortion even if it’s the only way to save the life of the pregnant person, which we can see is deeply unpopular,” Smith said.
This summer, the GOP passed a platform stating it opposes “all abortion.” The platform did not explicitly address whether abortion should be legal.
Blaine Conzatti, president of the Idaho Family Policy Center, questioned the survey methodology and said he found it “greatly wanting.” Conzatti said he believed the average person would be confused by some of the terms used in the poll.
Despite that, he said, he would focus on the 26% of respondents who said they support abortion always being legally permitted. All other responses, he said, including “permitted with limitations,” could be interpreted as supporting abortion restrictions or bans.
“(Idaho doesn’t) have any bans on the books,” Conzatti said. “We have a wide variety of exceptions that apply to most cases people would prefer (them to).”
Conzatti said he’d like to see Idaho get rid of its exceptions for cases of rape and incest that have been reported to law enforcement. He said the exceptions violate equal protection laws on the basis of parentage.
Those exceptions were widely supported by poll respondents, and Conzatti said it could take a generation to alter the public’s view on those situations.
“It’s a longer battle in a state like Idaho because you’re going to have to persuade people of moral merits of that argument,” Conzatti said.
“Even if the polling was accurate — and it’s not — we shouldn’t make public policy based on public opinion,” he added. “If we did you would be supporting the Holocaust and slavery.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
