Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 22, 1992 TAG: 9201220176
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
POLL: PEOPLE PREFER RESTRICTIONS, NOT BAN ON ABORTION
The U.S. Supreme Court may be moving closer to overturning Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that established abortion as a constitutional right.But local residents do not want the court to go that far, the latest Roanoke Valley Poll found.
"I think people ought to have the right to decide for themselves," said Steve White, 37, who was one of the 400 people surveyed in last fall's poll. "It should be up to the family - man and wife, mother and father and daughter."
"Abortion should not be a method of birth control," said Jim Martin, 59. "But it should not be a national political issue. It's a woman's choice."
Bernice Francis, 83, said, "I don't think any man should tell a woman whether she should have an abortion."
Only 23 percent of those surveyed favored overturning Roe vs. Wade, a drop of 8 percentage points from the 1990 Roanoke Valley Poll.
But those surveyed did favor some restrictions on abortion. About one-third said abortion should be legal in all circumstances. Fifty-five percent said abortion should be legal only in certain circumstances, and 10 percent said it should be illegal in all circumstances.
The National Abortion Rights Action League said recently that 13 states were likely to ban or severely restrict abortions if Roe vs. Wade were overturned. Virginia is one of 19 other states where abortion rights would be threatened, the group said.
Those surveyed last fall strongly disagreed with the Bush administration's ban on abortion counseling at federally funded family planning clinics. Only 14 percent favored the ban.
In November, President Bush vetoed a spending bill that would have overturned the ban.
On other social and political issues:
Understanding and compassion for AIDS victims is growing in the Roanoke Valley.
In 1986, 23 percent of those surveyed said children with AIDS should not be allowed in public schools. That fell to 11 percent in last year's poll.
And in 1986, 60 percent of those surveyed said it should be OK for an employer to refuse to hire a person with AIDS. That fell to 42 percent in last year's poll.
Not quite half of those surveyed said AIDS was a "very serious" problem in the Roanoke Valley, while 89 percent said it was a "very serious" problem nationally.
And nine out of ten of those surveyed favored mandatory testing of health care professionals for the AIDS virus.
Two-thirds of those surveyed favored a 10-year term limitation for Supreme Court justices, who now are appointed for life.
The Roanoke Valley Poll was conducted in September and October by Roanoke College's Center for Community Research. It has a 5 percent margin of error. This means that if every adult in the Roanoke Valley were surveyed, there is a 95 percent chance the results would fall within 5 percentage points of those found in the poll.
The Roanoke Times & World-News co-sponsors the Roanoke Valley Poll. This is one in a series of stories about the poll's findings.