Poll finds many in N.J. support state, federal funding for women’s health care

Many in New Jersey want to maintain federal and state funding for women’s reproductive health services for lower-income women, according to to a new poll of registered voters.

A majority of those polled also support the American Care Act requirements related to such services, found the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute in partnership with the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University.

Women were about 8 percentage points more likely to support the funding than men, said institute president Linda Schwimmer, suggesting that the is more personal for women.

“Health care is always a very personal issue, and whenever somebody has a personal experience with it — say parents versus non parents — you’ll tend to see differences in answers,” she said.

The poll found 75 percent of New Jersey voters want to keep the ACA’s requirement that health insurance companies cover the full cost of birth control; 42 percent of Republicans support that.

About three-quarters of those polled support federal or state funding for reproductive health care with more than 40 percent of Republicans in favor.

“New Jersey voters’ attitudes on women’s reproductive health largely reflect views nationwide,” said Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling and assistant research professor at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. “Opinions about coverage requirements, funding for low-income women, and of Planned Parenthood moreover often cut across partisan lines in New Jersey, with support spanning a wide range of demographics.”