Latest UNH poll shows opposition to state's new abortion ban is growing

Opposition to the state’s new 24-week abortion ban, which mandates ultrasounds and carries criminal penalties for doctors who violate it, grew by 10 percentage points in a month, according to the UNH Survey Center’s most recent Granite State Poll.

The ban has gotten significantly more attention in the last four weeks, and new wording in the July poll made clear the law has no exceptions for rape, incest, or a fetus unable to survive on its own. A separate question in the July poll asked respondents for the first time about the law’s requirement that all women get an ultrasound before abortion at any point in pregnancy, a mandate the medical community has vehemently opposed. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they opposed that ultrasound requirement; 31 percent said they favored it.

What those results mean for Gov. Chris Sununu’s political future is less clear, especially since he describes himself as pro-choice but just signed the state’s first abortion restriction since 2011, when the Legislature overrode then-Gov. John Lynch’s veto of a parental notification requirement.

The short answer is it depends on voter turnout and whether abortion is a key issue in the election, and what office he seeks, says Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire.

Read more: https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2021/07/28/latest-unh-poll-shows-opposition-to-states-new-abortion-ban-is-growing/