Less than two weeks after Rep. Renee Ellmers (R.-N.C.) sabotaged the expected passage of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, 69
percent of North Carolina Republicans aged 18 to 49 support the ban on abortions after 20-weeks asked directly without conditions or nuance in aTownhall/Gravis poll of 782 randomly selected registered GOP voters.
Sixty percent of Republicans aged 50 to 64 support the ban, as do 55 percent of GOP voters older than 65, said Doug Kaplan, the managing partner of Gravis Insights, the Florida-based pollster the executed the poll. The Jan. 31 poll carries a margin of error of 3.5 percent.he said.
Ellmers, the chairwoman of the Republican Women’s Policy Committee, signed up as a co-sponsor of , H.R. 36, Jan. 9, but on the Jan. 20 anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision the congresswoman withdrew her name as a co-sponsor. In 2013, Ellmers voted for the same bill.
Kaplan said 58 percent of all Republican voters, who were asked: “Would you support a federal outlawing abortions after 20 weeks or pregnancy?” said they supported the ban and 27 percent said they were opposed.
Broken down by ethnic communities, 58 percent respondents identifying themselves as Hispanic supported the straight-out 20-week ban, 67 percent of those identifying themselves as Asian, he said.
Kaplan said poll sought to find the solid baseline for opinions on abortion rights without the gaming of questions that other pollsters use to push the results one way or the other.
“By a similar margin, 54 percent to 27 percent, North Carolina Republicans believe the GOP should work to end abortion in America,” he said.
“It was a virtual tie, 41 percent for and 39 percent against, when they were asked if federal law should outlaw all abortions,” he said. Gravis Insights is a non-partisan research firm. The poll were conducted using IVR technology and weighted by selected voting demographics and proprietary modeling.