New polls confirm: Planned Parenthood is very popular, and Republicans oppose it at their own risk
Led by none other than Mike Pence, Republicans have for years bashed their heads into the stone wall that is Planned Parenthood. The GOP's never-ending jihad to dismantle this singularly important healthcare provider for women has been spectacularly unsuccessful, and there's a good reason for it: Planned Parenthood is very popular with voters, and now we have some new data showing us just how popular it is—and how dangerous it is for politicians to attack it.
On Thursday—almost exactly a year after congressional Republicans tried to shut down the federal government in order to defund Planned Parenthood—the century-old non-profit women's clinic released a batch of polls in key Senate battlegrounds conducted by Public Policy Polling, and the results are very consistent. Not only do respondents universally have strongly positive views of Planned Parenthood, in every state, they say they're less likely to vote for Republican Senate candidates who support defunding it. Here's how the numbers break down:
- In North Carolina, 66 percent say they have a positive view of Planned Parenthood to just 30 percent who hold a negative opinion. By a 56-38 margin, these same voters say they're less likely to vote for GOP Sen. Richard Burr due to his support for defunding PP.
- In Nevada, it's 65-32 in favor of PP, and voters are less likely to support pro-defunding GOP Rep. Joe Heck by a 49-42 spread.
- In New Hampshire, voters like Planned Parenthood by a 63-34 margin, and they're less apt to back GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who of course also has voted to defund, by a 49-38 margin.
- And in Pennsylvania, the positive feelings about Planned Parenthood run at a 60-34 clip, while voters say they're less inclined to vote for GOP Sen. Pat Toomey, one of the most fanatic proponents of defunding, by a 53-35 margin.