Nearly Two-Thirds Of U.S. Adults Support Middle Ground On Abortion Rights, Have 'Split' Views On Access To Procedure, Poll Says

About 66% of U.S. adults support finding a "middle ground" on abortion-rights issues but have "split" views on the level of access to the procedure that should be permitted, according to a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press survey released Thursday, AFP/Yahoo! News reports (AFP/Yahoo! News, 8/3). The poll, which surveyed 2,003 U.S. adults from July 6 to July 19, finds that 31% would prefer abortion be "generally available," 20% think it should be "available but under stricter limits than it is now," 35% think the procedure should be banned with exceptions in cases of rape and incest and to save the life of the woman and 11% think abortion should "not be permitted at all" (Steinfels, New York Times, 8/5). "This reflects the fact that people realize that this is a very divisive issue for the society and that we would be better off with a compromise," Scott Keeter, Pew director of survey research, said (AFP/Yahoo! News, 8/3). The survey also finds that 48% of U.S. adults support nonprescription access to emergency contraception, while 41% oppose it. In addition, 80% of U.S. adults say pharmacists should not be allowed to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives, while 17% say they should be allowed to refuse, according to the survey. When survey respondents were asked about human embryonic stem cell research, 56% said that they supported conducting the research despite the destruction of human embryos, 32% said they opposed the research because they did not want to destroy embryos and 12% said they did not know. The poll, which was taken before President Bush vetoed a bill (HR 810) that would have expanded embryonic stem cell research, also finds that 43% of participants said they know a lot about the stem cell debate, 42% said they know a little and 15% said they know nothing about it (Pew survey, 8/3). The poll has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points (Reuters, 8/3).

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