Poll: 59 Percent of Likely Voters Oppose HHS Birth Control Mandate
A recently released poll regarding the Department of Health and Human Services' "Preventive Services" mandate has found that nearly 60 percent of likely American voters oppose the measure.
In a survey of 801 likely American voters conducted November 18-20, WPA Opinion Research found that 51 percent of respondents "strongly oppose" the HHS mandate, while 8 percent "somewhat oppose" it.
On the other end, 28 percent of respondents "strongly support" the HHS mandate, 7 percent "somewhat support" it, and 6 percent were undecided.
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The survey was commissioned by two conservative groups, the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
"Americans increasingly oppose this mandate because it puts the jobs, livelihoods, and healthcare of millions of Americans at risk," said FRC President Tony Perkins in a statement on Tuesday.
The poll's results were released the same day that the United States Supreme Court decided that it would hear two cases regarding the mandate and its impact on American businesses.
Legal challenges to the mandate leveled by the Green family-owned Hobby Lobby Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties will be brought before the highest court in the land.
Hobby Lobby had successfully argued its case before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals for exemption on the grounds of its family leadership being religiously opposed to providing abortifacients.
Conestoga Wood, on the other hand, was denied a religious exemption by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that it could not get such an exemption since it is a "for-profit secular corporation."
News of the Court's decision garnered attention from many groups both for and against the HHS mandate's implementation.
Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the lead attorney representing Hobby Lobby, said in a statement that this was a positive move.
"This is a major step for the Greens and their family businesses in an important fight for Americans' religious liberty," said Duncan.
"We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will clarify once and for all that religious freedom in our country should be protected for family business owners like the Greens."
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said in a statement that her organization was "pleased" that the Court was taking up the issue during this session.
"That this reflects an underlying obsession with controlling women's lives seems obvious when you observe that the enemies of the new law are not pushing to deny men access to Viagra or any other number of similar medical requests covered by insurance," said Hogue.
"Obviously, we hope the court upholds the judge's existing rulings that…bosses have no business imposing their own politics on their employee's health and decisions."
