Poll: Latinos overwhelmingly oppose abortion bans

More than two-thirds of Hispanics say they would not vote for a candidate who supports a nationwide ban on abortions, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

The new poll shows strong support for abortion rights among Hispanics in the wake of the June Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which sent the issue of abortion back to the states.

The poll was conducted by BSP Research for abortion rights advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Latino Victory Project, a progressive Latino advocacy organization.

According to an internal polling memo reviewed by The Hill, 71 percent of Latinos would not vote for any candidate who supports a nationwide ban on abortions without exceptions, and 70 percent said they were less likely to vote for a candidate who wants to ban abortion as well as preventative and emergency contraception.

The strong support for abortion rights is consistent across gender, national origin, religious and geographic distinctions.

Still, Latinas are much more likely to oppose banning abortion — 77 percent of surveyed Latinas opposed bans, while 18 percent supported them, while 67 percent of Hispanic male respondents opposed bans and 28 percent supported them.

Catholic Hispanics were also more likely than other Christians to oppose bans, with 73 percent of Catholics against abortion bans and 63 percent of other Christians in opposition.

And 74 percent of U.S.-born Latinos opposed abortion bans, compared to 69 percent of foreign-born Latinos.

In the memo, the pollsters said that overall, 82 percent of respondents were in favor of the government maintaining abortion rights.

That number includes 29 percent of conservative Latinos who personally oppose abortion but say the government should not play a role in reproductive decisions.

“In particular, the 29% of the Latino electorate who personally opposes abortion, but does not want the government taking the right away for others, is a critical and often misunderstood portion of the Latino community that we must communicate effectively with,” according to the polling memo.

In that vein, 84 percent of respondents said decisions on abortion should be left to pregnant people and their doctors.

The poll comes as abortion has become a key electoral issue heading into November, second only to economic concerns among most voters.

Democrats have by and large leaned in to the abortion debate, although some have raised questions about how Hispanic voters would fall on the issue.

The memo by BSP Research, a widely respected Democratic polling firm with expertise in surveying Hispanic voters, seeks to dispel those fears.

“For years there have been widespread assumptions that Latinos are religious conservatives who oppose abortion,” the BSP Research memo stated.

“This survey answers those assumptions with facts and data to show that Latino voters strongly support reproductive freedom, and have serious concerns today about abortion bans in many states. Importantly, this survey uncovers an important nuance–that even Latinos who personally oppose abortion do not believe the government should get involved to ban access for people who need it,” the memo added.

According to the memo, 800 respondents were surveyed in English and Spanish throughout the United States, 25 percent on live phone calls and 75 percent online.

The survey was conducted in the first two weeks of September and had a margin of error of 3.5 percent.