A poll commissioned by NM Political Report found that a majority of voters support abortion rights, including a law protecting abortion rights recently passed by the state legislature, and also are poised to approve dipping into the state’s massive land grant permanent fund for education funding.
Abortion rights could be at the forefront of midterm elections as the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to gut the landmark Roe v. Wade decision this summer.
When asked in the poll conducted by Public Policy Polling if abortion should be always legal; legal with some limitations; illegal except for rape, incest or to save the mother’s life; or always illegal, a majority said it should be legal (with 30 percent saying always, 25 percent saying legal with limitations). Just 13 percent said it should always be illegal and 29 percent said it should be illegal except in the cases or rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.
When asked about the new state law that would allow abortion to remain legal in New Mexico regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court decides, 53 percent said they supported the recently enacted law and 36 percent said they opposed it.
Women are more likely to support abortion rights, with 62 percent supporting the New Mexico law and 29 percent signaling opposition. Among men, 43 percent support the law and 44 percent oppose.
On the question of if abortion should be legal, 36 percent of women said always and 26 percent said with some limitations, while 21 percent said it should be illegal except for rape, incest or to save the mother’s life and 13 percent said illegal in all cases. Among men, just 23 percent said it should always be legal, and 23 percent said legal with limitations, while 37 percent said it should be illegal except for rape, incest or to save the mother’s life and 14 percent said it should always be illegal.
Hispanics or Latinos were also more likely to support the New Mexico law keeping abortion legal, with 62 percent in support and 27 percent in opposition. Among white voters, 46 percent supported and 44 percent opposed, while among other ethnicities, 59 percent supported and 26 percent opposed.
Land grant permanent fund
The proposed constitutional amendment to tap the land grant permanent fund received the support of more than 60 percent of voters. When asked if they supported the proposal to allocate an additional 1.25 percent of the Land Grant Permanent Fund to early childhood education and public school funding, 61 percent said they would support, while 26 percent said they would oppose.
Many Democrats in New Mexico have pushed for such an amendment for years, but it was perennially bottled up in the Senate Finance Committee (and in one case the state House when it was held by Republicans).
Voters will decide whether to approve the amendment and two others (one regarding authorizing funds for residential services and infrastructure and another regarding the election of judges) this fall.
The poll of 642 New Mexico voters was conducted on June 13 and 14. Public Policy Polling called landlines and text messaged those without landlines. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent for topline questions, while subpopulations will have larger margins of error.
