Another example of issue polling being unreliable
Polling on abortion is unreliable, so take the use of polls by politicians and activists who support "abortion rights" with a grain of salt.
I pointed out before in this newsletter that issue polling can be unreliable. So here is another example, this time dealing with abortion.
State Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, recently tweeted the Iowa Poll conducted by Seltzer & Company for The Des Moines Register last fall on abortion. With the Supreme Court seemingly on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, we will see more appeals to polling like this.
The headline states: "Majority of Iowans believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases."
They reported an eight percentage point increase in those who believe abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances since March 2020, which is eye-opening.
Stephen Gruber-Miller reporting for The Des Moines Register, wrote, "Fifty-seven percent of Iowans say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 38% say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, and 5% aren't sure."
The poll was conducted among 805 Iowa adults on September 12-15, 2021, and has a margin of error of +/-3.5 percentage points.
The breakdown for the 2021 poll is as follows:
Legal in most cases - 36 percent
Illegal in most cases - 25 percent
Legal in all cases - 20 percent
Illegal in all cases - 13 percent
Not sure - 5 percent
The Des Moines Register didn't provide this breakdown in 2020. However, they reported a decline in those who believe it should be legal in all or most cases. Their March 2020 poll showed that 49 percent believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 45 percent thought it should be illegal in all or most cases.
