Poll: Majority of Mississippians oppose Supreme Court abortion decision

by Geoff Pender, Mississippi Today
July 14, 2022

A poll commissioned by the ACLU of Mississippi reports 51% of Mississippians oppose the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Mississippi case that overturned the longstanding Roe v. Wade right to abortion.

The survey reported that only 18% of those polled believe abortion should be illegal in all cases, with 81% believing it should be legal with some restrictions and 32% saying it should be legal in all cases.

The poll also delved into state politics, including the favorability/unfavorability of the governor, lieutenant governor, House speaker and the Legislature.

The live poll was conducted from June 28 to July 6 of 872 likely Mississippi voters by Blueprint Polling, sister company to Mississippi-based Chism Strategies, which often does work for Democratic politicians. Results were weighted by age, race and gender of a likely general election turnout with a margin of error of +/- 3.3%. Those polled included 402 Republicans, 285 Democrats and 170 independents.

The poll also reported:

• 46% said women in Mississippi should have the choice to have an abortion up to 16 weeks of pregnancy, with 43% saying no.
• 49% said they oppose women being able to access online pharmacies to order an FDA approved “abortion pill,” while 47% said they should have access. But 86% said they oppose any law allowing state or police officials to monitor or review a woman's internet history to see if they've ordered such medication. And 48% said doctors should be able to prescribe the medication through telehealth services, with 46% opposed.
• 83% said women should not be criminally investigated or prosecuted for possibly having an abortion, with only 6% saying they should.
• 71% said they do not view emergency contraception such as IUDs and Plan B as methods of abortion.
• 76% of respondents support expanding postpartum Medicaid coverage for mothers — a measure that died in the Legislature this year — and the same percent support overall expansion of Medicaid, including 59% of Republicans surveyed.

In 2011, Mississippians voted 58%-42% against a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person in an effort to ban abortions. In the new survey, 54% said they would oppose lawmakers passing a similar law now, with 38% saying they would support it.

The poll showed Gov. Tate Reeves with a net favorability of -12.3. For Reeves, the breakdown of respondents to the poll includes:

• Very favorable: 12.5%
• Somewhat favorable: 19.2%
• Neutral: 14.2%
• Somewhat unfavorable: 12.1%
• Very unfavorable: 31.9%

He remains generally favorable among Republicans, according to the poll, with 55% finding him favorable and 21% finding him unfavorable. Among white voters polled, 42% found him favorable and 32% found him unfavorable.

The survey reported Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann with a net favorability of +10 and House Speaker Philip Gunn at -3.7. But 35% said they didn't know enough about Hosemann to rate him, and 45% said the same for Gunn.

The state Legislature, according to the poll, was also underwater with voters, with a net favorability of -12.6.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.