Polling: Abortion Support in Massachusetts

In 2018, the NIRH Action Fund partnered with NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts to illustrate that Massachusetts voters care about protecting abortion rights and abortion access. The ultimate goal was to pave the way for passing proactive legislation to repeal barriers to abortion on the books, safeguard reproductive freedom in state law, and expand access to reproductive health care. 

As part of these efforts, we conducted a first-of-its-kind poll of Massachusetts voters regarding reproductive freedom and abortion access.

This polling included an oversample of Catholic voters in order to address the misconception that Catholic voters’ opposition to reproductive freedom was a barrier to legislators’ actions on these issues. 

The poll results showed that Massachusetts voters, including Catholics, overwhelmingly support policies that recognize the right to abortion and improve access to this care. These findings formed the foundation of a larger campaign to engage voters and elected officials to support new, affirmative abortion laws. Between 2018 and 2020, NIRH and NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts partnered together, using this polling to elevate abortion access as a key issue for legislators, resulting in the public strengthening of their stances and laying the groundwork for policy change, such as the ROE Act in 2020.