ABC6, UNH push back on poll criticism by anti-abortion group

February 12, 2019 11:02 pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A poll conducted last fall by ABC6 and local media organizations is now being criticized several months later by a local anti-abortion group.

The Rhode Island Right to Life Committee accused media outlets who helped write that poll of colluding with abortion rights advocates.

Tonight those outlets, including ABC6, are responding, saying that is absolutely not true.

The poll surveyed Rhode Island voters on a wide range of political topics.

The director of Rhode Island Right to Life claims a question asking whether Roe vs. Wade should be protected on the state level is “bogus,” and also questioned the wording of that question and the use of the results by certain pro-choice groups.

Both ABC6 management and the University of New Hampshire said they stand firmly behind the poll and that the accusations simply don’t make sense.

The question about abortion, in the poll which ABC6 collaborated on with the Providence Journal and The Public’s Radio, is now coming under criticism several months after it was asked.

The poll asked Rhode Islanders “thinking about the next session of the general assembly, would you support or oppose the General Assembly passing a bill to protect legalized abortion in the state?”

71 percent of voters surveyed last fall said they would either strongly or somewhat support such a bill.

Barth Bracy, director of the Rhode Island Right to Life Committee, calls the question “bogus,” saying it “colluded with pro-choice groups which have supported abortion bills introduced late last month.

Bracy said in a statement, “the poll does not accurately describe what the bills actually do, yet your outlier result is being used by bill proponents as if it does.”

Andrew Smith of the University of New Hampshire, which worked with ABC6 and others to write the poll said the point of a simply worded question was to not push respondents one way or the other, as Bracy alleges.

“when we were working out the wording for it, it was to try to understand what the public thought about the general topic of Roe vs. Wade, about abortion rights within the state…so the question was written in a more general way that didn’t provide information that might sway somebody,” said Smith.

As for the question of collusion with certain groups?

“The organizations that may or may not be using this poll had no input into the design of the survey the design of the project, the wording of the questions or any of that,” he said.

“The idea that this is a push poll is absurd,” said ABC6 News Director Kelly Johnston.

She pointed out that the poll, conducted in late September and early October couldn’t possibly have anticipated the bills now being considered.

“We did this poll well before any of this current legislation was introduced…nobody was involved except for the media outlets that gathered the questions and UNH,” said Johnston.

We should note Barth Bracy of Rhode Island Right to Life declined our requests for an in-person or phone interview to discuss his concerns about the poll.

We do encourage our viewers to take a look at the poll in its entirety, including how the questions were asked and the methods that were used to get the results.

That poll is available here.