There is strong bipartisan support for pro-life laws, as seen by several states that recently passed such legislation, a recent Gallup poll shows.

Eighty four percent of Democratic respondents and 95 percent of Republican respondents favor abortion laws requiring doctors to tell patients about the possible risks before performing an abortion procedure, a Gallup poll found. Eighty-six percent of Independents also favor informed consent.

There is also majority support across all political lines for laws requiring parental consent for minors, a 24-hour waiting period before procedures, and partial birth abortions across political lines.

Jeanne Monahan, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, lauded the poll as a victory for pro-life lobbyists. However, she urged more to be done to unveil the business practices of abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.

“I think it is great news that people across the board are agreeing that women have the right to informed consent and that parents should be involved in these kinds of decisions,” said Monahan.

Overall, 87 percent of respondents say they favor informed consent, and more than seven in ten Americans (71 percent) favor requiring parental consent for minors and establishing a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions. Nearly two-thirds of all respondents (64 percent) favor making the specific procedure known as “partial birth abortion” illegal.

Marilyn Musgrave, the project director of Susan B. Anthony List’s Votes Have Consequences campaign, says Americans overwhelmingly support pro-life laws because they make sense.

“Things like parental consent and what I call ‘a woman’s right to know,’ which is an informed consent before an abortion, are just so common sense,” she said. “People know that parents need to be informed when their minor daughter is making a decision that is as serious as whether or not to get an abortion, and they know that anybody having a surgical procedure needs all the information.”

In 2011 alone, states have enacted a record 162 new laws or changes to existing laws that affect reproductive health, according to a July report from the Guttmacher Institute.

A record 80 abortion restrictions were enacted this year – more than double the previous record of 34 abortion restrictions in 2005 and more than triple the 23 restrictions enacted last year. And five states passed laws outlawing abortion after a 20-week gestation.

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