Majority of Louisiana residents oppose the state’s abortion law, poll finds

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - When the nation’s highest court struck down Roe. v. Wade, Louisiana’s strict abortion law was triggered.

A new Gray TV poll of 625 registered Louisiana voters sheds light on how residents feel about the state’s abortion ban.

“Abortion was propelled into the spotlight after a Supreme Court decision. As one of the most conservative states, Louisiana was quick to ban abortion with only a few exceptions,” said Fox 8 Political Analyst Mike Sherman.

When queried about which issues will be most important when they consider their vote for governor, abortion ranked seventh on the list.

But abortion came up again during the poll.

QUESTION: Under current Louisiana law, abortion is banned, with exceptions if the life or health of the mother is seriously threatened or the child is not expected to survive the pregnancy. Do you support or oppose this state abortion law?

The statewide poll results show:

41% support the law
53% oppose the law
6% undecided

“What we’re seeing in this poll is that the majority of Louisianans actually don’t support the current law as it’s written,” Sherman said.

RACE FOR GOVERNOR

Additionally, according to the poll, 45% of men support the abortion law, 48% oppose it and 7% were undecided. While 38% of women said they support the law, compared to 57% who oppose it. Five percent of females were undecided.

Responses were also broken down by race. Fifty-two percent of whites said they support the law, 43% oppose it and 5% were undecided.

However, only 16% of blacks said they support the law and 76% oppose it and 8% are undecided.

“What’s unclear is whether the majority of people who oppose Louisiana’s current laws which are very restrictive against abortion oppose it because it’s not allowing abortion or because they oppose the exceptions, the minimal exceptions that are in the law,” said Sherman.

During the legislative session earlier this year, Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards and others called for exceptions for rape and incest victims to be added to the state’s abortion law, but the GOP-dominated legislature rejected that idea.

“Well, we’ve known for a while now that the citizens support some sort of exceptions for rape and incest in the law, so the law as currently passed is actually outside of the mainstream of not only national political thought on abortion but even of Louisiana citizens political thought of abortion,” said Dillard University political analyst Robert Collins, Ph.D.

Collins thinks there will be another push in 2024 to add such exceptions to the law.

“I think that’s going to be the issue, that’s going to be an issue in the next legislative session, we will see legislators introducing legislation to put exceptions into the current abortion ban and not make it so extreme and so it will be important for whoever is governor at that time to be able to take a position on that particular issue,” said Collins.

Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans said she expects bills to be filed to clarify the law. She said it needs to be clear that having an abortion is not a crime for a woman.

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