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News > World

Poll: Most US Citizens Back Federal Funding for Contraception

  • Planned Parenthood

    Planned Parenthood | Photo: Reuters

Published 19 August 2015
Opinion

Poll results suggest it would be a counterproductive for Republicans to cut funding to women’s health and contraception services.

U.S. citizens overwhemingly believe that the federal government should fund free women's health exams, screenings and contraception services, a Reuters-Ipsos poll published Wednesday found, suggesting Republicans' calls to cut Planned Parenthood funding are counterproductive.

Furthermore, those surveyed said federal funding of Planned Parenthood should provide those services.

According to the poll, 73 percent of respondents – both Republicans and Democrats – backed federal funding for an unnamed group to provide women's health exams, 69 percent supported it for providing prenatal services, while 59 percent approved of it for contraception.

When the question was asked a differently, reported Reuters, more participants responded that federal dollars for Planned Parenthood should specifically provide those services.

Republican senators had planned in August to cut more than US$500 million from federal funding in August after controversial videos, released by anti-choice activist group, allegedly showed employees at the Center for Medical Progress discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue. However, Democrats lawmakers and supporters of the nonprofit organization, including Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, claimed the video was “part of a long-term smear campaign by people who want to deny women in this country the right to control their own bodies.” The Republicans' move eventually failed.

According to Anna North, a columnist in the New York Times, Planned Parenthood performs 4.5 million sexually transmitted disease tests and treatments every year, almost 400,000 pap smears and almost 500,000 breast exams, while only 3 percent of its health care services are for abortions.

RELATED: For a Global Fight For a Woman’s Right To Choose

"Americans know that Planned Parenthood provides high-quality health care in communities across the country, and that's why they overwhelmingly oppose these political attacks," Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for the nonprofit, said in a statement.

However, the poll suggests that the controversial video footage had an impact on the people surveyed, with  44 percent of respondents who watched it saying they now had a more negative view of Planned Parenthood, while 34 percent said their opinion was unchanged.

When the videos were described to poll respondents, 39 percent said Planned Parenthood should not receive government funding and 34 percent said federal dollars should continue – compared with 54 percent before watching the footage.

The online poll had a credibility margin of 3.1 percentage points, informed Reuters.

Almost 300,000 women in the world needlessly die each year because of governments’ failure to provide quality, comprehensive reproductive health care, a federation of human rights groups declared earlier in July, who called on the U.N. Human Rights Committee to strengthen measures that guarantee women equal and non-discriminatory access to abortion.
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