DES MOINES, Iowa – A new poll commissioned by the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders conducted by Public Opinion Strategies in June shows that Iowans are closely divided on a Protect Life Amendment passed in the Iowa Legislature for the first time during its 2021 session.
According to the poll conducted June 1-3, 2021, of 500 likely voters, 45 percent of Iowans say they support the proposed amendment, and 47 percent say they oppose it. The poll has a margin of error of 4.38 percent.
When asked whether Iowans “should be given the opportunity to vote on the amendment,” 84 percent of voters said yes. This number includes 79 percent of those Iowans who say they oppose the measure.
When poll respondents heard arguments in favor of the amendment, a significant number moved to support, resulting in a net 50-40 percent of voters favoring the passage of the Protect Life Amendment, suggesting that an information campaign in favor of the amendment could cause a ten-point swing.
The poll also showed that 81 percent of Iowans favor legal limits to abortion, with only 14 percent saying they agreed with the statement, “Abortion should be legal at any time during a woman’s pregnancy.”
Also, 64 percent of Iowans say they oppose taxpayer funding for abortion, while only 32 percent say they supported it.
“This poll affirms what we have known for months,” Maggie DeWitte, executive director of Iowans for Life and chair of the Coalition, said in a released statement. “When Iowans have the opportunity to understand what’s at stake and what the amendment is actually about – protecting babies’ lives from efforts to legalize abortion to the day of birth and forcing Iowans to pay for it – they support the Protect Life Amendment. Everyday Iowans do not want unelected, activist judges turning our state into an extremist abortion destination.”
“The Iowa Supreme Court’s 2018 radical decision in Planned Parenthood v. Reynolds laid a foundation to undo every protection Iowa mothers and unborn children have from unregulated abortion extremism,” Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The FAMiLY Leader, a Coalition member organization, added. “But as this poll affirmed, Iowans are appalled by painful and grisly late-term abortions. They can’t imagine being forced to pay for it. And if the courts are going to push that on us, then we will pass the Protect Life Amendment to ensure We the People, and not activist judges, determine what kind of state Iowa will be.”
If passed during the 90th General Assembly and ratified by Iowa voters, it would amend the Iowa Constitution to include, “Life. To defend the dignity of all human Life and protect unborn children from efforts to expand abortion even to the point of birth, we the people of the State of Iowa declare that this Constitution does not recognize, grant, or secure a right to abortion or require the public funding of abortion.”
The coalition only released an executive summary of the poll with no cross-tabs, so The Iowa Torch could not verify the poll sample’s makeup. The poll, however, suggests a ratification vote for the proposed amendment would be much closer than the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll conducted by Seltzer & Co. in March suggested.
The Des Moines Register poll showed only 31 percent of Iowans supporting the amendment, with 58 percent opposed. Their poll was conducted among 775 Iowans and had a +/-3.5 margin of error. They also did not include information about the poll sample’s makeup.
Read the executive summary of the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders-commissioned poll below:
210611-Protect-Life-Amendment-poll-summary
