A Lancaster County commissioner said a majority of residents oppose abortion, here are the facts.

• Robby Brod
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Robby Brod is WITF's Democracy Beat Reporter covering mis/disinformation and the harm they cause communities across Pennsylvania.
  
  Before coming to Harrisburg, he worked at WHYY in Philadelphia, WVIK in the Quad Cities, and Iowa Public Radio in Iowa City.

Following up from last week’s FCF about Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons claiming the “vast majority of the citizens of Lancaster County” oppose abortion, in response to a new Planned Parenthood opening in Lancaster.

He provided no data to support his claim and didn’t respond to a request for comment.

After some research, I found polling data on Lanc. County residents is too sparse to make this conclusion.

Planned Parenthood told me they don’t have data about how residents feel about abortion, nor do they believe it exists.

The best evidence we have is a Franklin & Marshall poll from May that showed nearly 9 in 10 registered Pa. voters believes abortion should be legal under certain circumstances (52%) or under any circumstance (37%).

Though the sample size is too small to properly represent Lanc. County, the poll sampled ~50 Lanc. County voters. Only 12% of them thought that abortion should “always” be illegal.

Berwood Yost, director of F&M’s Center for Opinion Research, says it’s “hard to imagine that the feelings of Lancaster residents” are different from elsewhere in Pa.

So, without providing proof for his claims that Lanc. County residents oppose abortion, Commissioner Parsons’ claims are unsubstantiated. And polling data – though inconclusive – indicates he may be wrong.

Unless Parsons has conclusive data that supports his claims that’s unknown to both pollsters and Planned Parenthood, his claim is disinformation.

Sources:

Commissioner Parsons’ statement

May 2022 F&M poll:

(Bonus) Smart Talk interview w/ Berwood Yost about the F&M abortion poll