The Quinnipiac University poll poses this; There’s a bill before the state legislature that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detectable, usually 6 to 8 weeks into pregnancy. Do you support or oppose this bill? Forty five percent of Ohioans say they support it and 46 percent say they oppose it. Months ago, backers of the legislation known as the heartbeat bill, produced their own poll that showed two out of three Ohioans support the bill. A lead backer, Janet Folger Porter says more than 45% in this new poll would’ve identified themselves as heartbeat bill supporters if the question had been asked differently. Still, she says this poll is good news for her side.
Folger Porter – The outcome is even a biased question about banning abortion show 2 out of 3 Republicans want the heartbeat bill. And an overwhelming majority of Cathloics, protestants and evangelicals alike favor the heartbeat bill.
Folger Porter and some other groups that oppose abortion have split away from Ohio Right to Life over this issue during the past year. Its director, Mike Gonadakis, says Ohio Right to Life wants to end abortion but feels there are serious constitutional questions with this bill. He thinks there should’ve been a follow up question on the heartbeat bill.
Gonadakis - The pollster should have asked a follow up question to those that support house bill 125 And that question could be, I’m paraphrasing, if you knew house bill 125 had severe negative and unintended consequences to the pro life movement, will you still support it?
Gonadakis says he thinks support for the heartbeat bill would’ve been much lower if Ohioans knew more about it.
Copeland - Only 16% of Ohioans think abortion should be illegal in all cases and effectively, that’s what would happen with the heartbeat bill.
That’s Kellie Copeland with NARAL ProChoice Ohio. She also thinks support for the heartbeat bill would be even lower if Ohioans knew more about it. Copeland points to another question in the poll that asks if abortion should be legal, or illegal in all cases. She says most Ohioans answered that from a middle ground position but she says there’s no middle ground in the heartbeat bill.
Copeland – There’s only really an exception to save the life of the mother and a very narrow health exception. So there’s no exception for rape and incest, fetal anomolies, for many of the health conditions that come up. The exceptions are very narrow and because the bill goes into affect at a point in pregnancy where many women don’t know they are pregnant, it may as well be illegal in all cases.
The heartbeat bill is stuck in an Ohio Senate committee. The president of the Senate, Tom Niehaus, says he doesn’t expect the issue to come up again before the primary election on March 6th.