New Polling Shows Strong Support in Illinois for Continued Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood's Services

Chicago, IL - New poll results show clear opposition in Illinois to recent efforts to bar Planned Parenthood from participating in federally funded initiatives. The 95-year-old organization provides a range of preventive health services through Medicaid and other federal programs. In addition to family planning, those services include lifesaving cancer screenings, breast exams, birth control, testing for HIV and testing and treatment for other sexually transmitted infections.

The new poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, surveyed voters in Illinois. Besides highlighting Planned Parenthood’s vital role as a health care provider, the findings show that senators supporting efforts to defund the organization will face political backlash at home.

“Poll after poll shows that Americans across the country support Planned Parenthood and oppose efforts to cut off the critical preventive health services we provide,” said Carole Brite, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois.  “In the two weeks since the House voted to bar Planned Parenthood from any federal program, hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country have spoken out, called and e-mailed their members of Congress, told their personal stories online, and signed Planned Parenthood’s petition opposing that vote. Americans, especially women, have risen to Planned Parenthood’s defense in an incredible and overwhelming way.”

Highlights from the poll results:

• 62 percent of Illinois voters disagree with cutting federal funding for the nearly one million cervical cancer screenings provided at Planned Parenthood clinics every year.

• 62 percent of Illinois voters disagree with cutting federal funding for more than 830,000 breast cancer screenings provided at Planned Parenthood clinics every year.

• 60 percent of Illinois voters disagree with cutting federal funding for birth control, which Planned Parenthood provides to nearly 2.5 million patients every year.

• 61 percent of Illinois voters disagree with cutting federal funding for nearly 4 million tests and treatments for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections provided at Planned Parenthood clinics every year.

• 53 percent of Illinois voters disagree with cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood health centers.  

• 47 percent of Illinois voters said they were less likely to vote for their Senator if he or she voted to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding for preventive care.

The Public Policy Polling findings are in line with two new public polls released this week, one by NBC/Wall Street Journal and another by Quinnipiac University.

The Quinnipiac poll found that voters opposed “cutting off federal government funding to Planned Parenthood” by a margin of 53 percent to 43 percent.

The poll also found that 50 percent of Independent voters, as well as 66 percent of voters aged 18–34, and 60 percent of “moderate” voters opposed “cutting off federal government funding to Planned Parenthood.”

Read the full poll at www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1563.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll also released today found that 53 percent of Americans found it “mostly or totally unacceptable” to “eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood for family planning and preventive health services.”
 
Among women overall, 56 percent found it “mostly or totally unacceptable” to “eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood for family planning and preventive health services.”

Read the full poll HERE. (Planned Parenthood question on page 16).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704728004576176741120691736.html#articleTabs%3Ddocument%26project%3DWS

The Public Policy Polling poll was commissioned by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and conducted February 23 and 24: 560 Illinois voters were surveyed with a margin of error of +/-4.1 percent.