West Virginia voters overwhelmingly support the state’s Medicaid program providing coverage for the full range of reproductive healthcare, including abortion. Read all about it in this memo from Hart Research Associates.

A new survey conducted by the American Majority Project Research Institute found that strong majorities of West Virginia voters (76%) believe that medical decisions about reproductive issues should be made by a woman and her doctor. Across the political spectrum whether people self- identified as liberal or conservative, they were in support of reproductive justice for women, including support for Medicaid coverage for prenatal and maternity care and abortion (69%) and coverage for contraception in health plans provided by employers (64%).

When you look beyond the labels of “pro-life” or “pro-choice” and dig into how people really feel, this groundbreaking poll, conducted on behalf of WV FREE, makes it clear that West Virginia voters do not want to see a continuation of the kind of politically motivated attacks on reproductive health care that were seen in the most recent legislative session.

“The fact is that the rhetoric about West Virginians’ attitudes about abortion and reproductive health care is just plain wrong. People in our state prioritize access to health care and the creation of jobs, but they also see that the ability to plan our families as integral to achieving these aims. More than 85% of voters agreed that contraception and family planning services have made it easier for women in our state to have careers outside the home,” said Margaret Chapman Pomponio, Executive Director of WV FREE.

“West Virginians know that when people are able to obtain the full range of reproductive health care it not only improves the health outcomes of women, but also increases the financial stability of families and helps to build healthier communities,” added Chapman Pomponio.

“Unfortunately, we do not see these values reflected in the actions of our lawmakers. Even though 65% of people disapproved of making the parental notification law more restrictive and there was bipartisan support for actually strengthening the safeguards to ensure that vulnerable youth are able to get the care they need, a series of legislative and lobbying tricks in the final hours of this session resulted in taking away critical protections for young people,” said Chapman-Pomponio.

“We urge our state’s leaders to take a look at this poll and to see that West Virginians do not want them wasting any more time pushing medically unnecessary and intrusive limits on abortion when they could be advancing policies that would make a positive difference in the lives of women and families in our state – legislation to help ensure quality education and continue to improve access to health care and job opportunities. This poll makes clear something that we have been saying for a long time – when you look beyond the labels of ‘pro-life’ or ‘pro-choice’ and dig into how people really feel, West Virginia voters do not want to see more attacks on reproductive healthcare,” she concluded.

In response to erroneous claims made by a West Virginia doctor in several prominent media outlets, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of West Virginia and WV FREE commissioned a report to provide a careful and thorough examination of the research and data regarding abortion services in West Virginia. The report clarified that medical providers are well regulated and that abortion care in West Virginia is of high quality. Click here to read the full report: Access for Women: Facts about Abortion in WV.

With support from the National Network of Abortion Funds, WV FREE commissioned Rainmaker Inc to assess West Virginians’ attitudes toward public funding of abortion. The poll results might surprise you! To find out how West Virginians really feel about a woman’s right to choose, view the report.

In the fall of 2007, in partnership with ACLU-WV and the WV Foundation for Rape and Information Services, we completed our statewide EC Pharmacy Access project — we are the only state with an EC pharmacy survey of this scope and depth. Check out the results of the Pharmacy survey.

In the summer of 2006 WV FREE completed the research portion of our Emergency Contraception in the Emergency Room (‘EC in the ER’) project with the ACLU Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project and the WV Foundation for Rape and Information Services (FRIS). Check out the study here.