A private poll conducted in August by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake for pro-health care reform organization The Herndon Alliance was circulated by other health care reform advocates Thursday morning, showing Americans unconvinced that an exemption for providing birth control should be make on religious grounds. The survey’s sample included 600 women and 400 men. From the poll:
Requiring health insurers to cover contraceptives violates the rights of people who belong to religions that don’t believe in artificial contraception. The Catholic Church morally opposes birth control and Orthodox Jews and some Protestants find birth control objectionable. Forcing religious groups, individuals, health providers, and health plans to perform or pay for a service that they may find morally objectionable is wrong.
Fifty-two percent of Americans said they found that argument “not convicincing,” versus 42 percent who said they found it at least partially convincing.
In addition, the poll asked a question about weather the position of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on the the new health care law overall, without the birth control exemption, would matter among the general population and among Catholics. It make little difference — 57 percent of the general sample said it didn’t matter to them, as did 53 percent of Catholic voters.
In Public Policy Polling (D) numbers on the subject, commissioned by Planned Parenthood, Americans support unfettered access to contraception through Catholic health plans.
[A] strong majority (57 percent) of voters think that women employed by Catholic hospitals and universities should have the same rights to contraceptive coverage as other women, while only 39 percent say these institutions should be exempted from the requirement that health plans cover prescription birth control with no additional out-of-pocket costs because contraception runs counter to Catholic teachings. Notably, a 53 percent majority of Catholics agree with this sentiment, including 60 percent of independents.
Read the August poll here:
