Less than two weeks before Granite Staters go to the polls, a New Hampshire pro-life organization released a poll claiming the state’s voters support more restrictions on abortion. And it attacked GOP nominee for governor Kelly Ayotte over her support for the state’s current abortion law.
Cornerstone Action said the poll was conducted by Data Orbital, a top-10 national polling firm, in cooperation with Cornerstone Policy Research. It found a majority of New Hampshire voters would favor a 15-week abortion ban that preserves the state’s existing exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies and the mother’s health.
“This new survey confirms what Cornerstone has said for years: Granite State voters are centrists on abortion,” said Shannon McGinley, executive director of Cornerstone. “While a 6-week abortion restriction is unthinkable in New Hampshire, it is also clear that Granite Staters are not committed to the extreme pro-abortion position of elective abortion up to six months. While out-of-state progressive groups have spent millions advocating for abortion until birth in New Hampshire, they have failed to move the needle among free-thinking Granite State voters.”
Critics were quick to point out the wording of the question, which asked respondents if they agreed or disagreed with the statement “abortion should be legal after 15 weeks simply because the mother no longer wants the child.” The poll found 63.8 percent of Granite Staters said no.
While that is the position of Democrats like gubernatorial candidate Joyce Craig — who opposes any restrictions on abortion at any point in a pregnancy — it’s not how the question about attitudes on abortion is usually presented by pollsters.
Nevertheless, McGinley insists the poll shows New Hampshire voters are not the hardcore pro-choice electorate many candidates assume they are.
Cornerstone also went out of its way to hit Gov. Chris Sununu on the life issue, calling him “the most pro-abortion GOP governor in United States history.” And it criticized GOP gubernatorial nominee Kelly Ayotte for supporting the state’s current law that allows abortion for any reason for the first six months of pregnancy.
“New Hampshire’s current Republican nominee for governor, Kelly Ayotte, has largely followed in Sununu’s footsteps, pledging to veto any abortion restriction whatsoever before six months—even hinting by omission that she might not veto a bill repealing the current 6-month abortion restriction,” Cornerstone said in a statement.
“This poll shows that Kelly Ayotte’s pledge to defend 23-week elective abortions puts her to the left of most young voters, older voters, white voters, nonwhite voters, undeclared voters, and women in New Hampshire.”
Ironically, a fact check finding Craig’s attacks on Ayotte’s views on abortion is “misleading” was released on Wednesday as well.
Craig has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Ayotte currently “supports a national abortion ban.”
“I support New Hampshire’s decision on our law that is up to six months of pregnancy, freedom to obtain an abortion for any reason and exceptions in the last three months,” Ayotte said during Tuesday’s NHPR debate. “And I’ll veto anything more restrictive. This is a New Hampshire decision. It’s not a federal decision.”
Now, Politifact is calling out Craig for TV ads that claim Ayotte voted to ban all abortions while she was a U.S. senator.
“It’s misleading to say that as a U.S. senator, Kelly Ayotte voted for a national abortion ban,” Politifact found.
Details on the Cornerstone poll can be found here.
