Planned Parenthood has had quite the week. Last Tuesday, the organization’s president and CEO, Cecile Richards, spoke to the House Oversight Committee about the abortion giant’s use of taxpayer funding. Her appearance was not so stellar.
The results from a recent poll by the Economist/YouGov weren’t so stellar for Planned Parenthood, either.
The poll asks many questions pertaining to politics, but a few mention Planned Parenthood in particular. For instance, a plurality of respondents, 38 percent, had “heard a lot” about the Center for Medical Progress’s undercover Planned Parenthood videos. 37 percent have “heard a little,” and only 24 percent “heard nothing at all.”
Despite so many hearing about the videos, 45 percent have not seen the videos or clips.
The most telling result, though, comes from respondents asked, “Based on what you have seen or heard, do the videos show officials from Planned Parenthood breaking the law?” Over half, 54 percent, answered “yes” to that question. Forty-six percent said “no.” There was no “unsure” option to pick.
Earlier in the survey, respondents were asked a question about various organizations receiving federal dollars. Planned Parenthood was the last of them on the list. A plurality, at 33 percent want funds to remain unchanged. That percentage is not far off from those who want to decrease federal spending by a lot, at 31 percent.
Respondents were also asked about outcomes to do with funding Planned Parenthood with regards to a possible government shutdown. The federal government has since been funded, which includes Planned Parenthood. The results are still noteworthy.
Twenty-three percent were not sure of which outcome was more important, but the same percentage also answered that the most important outcome was to “defund[] Planned Parenthood – even if that means shutting down the federal government temporarily.”
One interesting question also asked respondents to select “which of the following services do you primarily associate with Planned Parenthood?” They were allowed to choose up to three.
Contraception had the highest percentage, at 53 percent, but abortion was a close second, at 51 percent. Pregnancy testing had 40 percent, while sex ed and testing for sexually transmitted diseases each had 28 percent.
While it may be some time before Planned Parenthood is rightfully defunded, the results are nevertheless encouraging in the meantime.
