Most people who took MRN abortion survey were women and residents of Adams County

QUINCY — Muddy River News surveyed its readers in October about abortion, one of the many emotionally charged and highly politicized issues of our time. 

This survey was open to any Muddy River News reader. It was not a random sample, nor was it based on any scientific method to conduct a survey. The results are not intended to be a representation of how everyone in northeast Missouri and West-Central Illinois believes or what they think. It also does not represent all our readers. It is simply a representation of how the readers who completed the survey feel and what they think. 

Responses were filtered to include only those from people who live in the counties that Muddy River News covers — Adams, Brown, Hancock, Lewis, Marion, McDonough, Monroe, Ralls, Shelby, Pike (Ill.) and Pike (Mo.) — leaving 517 responses to analyze. Some references to the results are only in reference to responses from Adams County. Those instances are indicated as such.

The 517 responses were from 318 women, 191 men and 8 who identified as non-binary or another gender other than what was listed on the survey.

A majority of respondents (62%) were women and residents of Adams County (86%). 

Women accounted for most of the responses to our survey in nearly every county, age group and political party. The only groups that women did not account for more than half of the responses were responses from currently identifying independents (52% were men, 46% were women) and responses from Lewis County, which included responses from five men and five women.

More than half of the respondents (51%) identify as Republicans. The rest of the respondents identify as Democrats (31%) or independents (15%). The remaining 3% consisted of respondents who identify as a different party, do not identify with any party or do not know which party they identify with.

Nearly one in three respondents (31%) were age 65 or older. The rest of the age ranges were somewhat evenly distributed: 

• 17% of respondents were between the ages of 55 and 64; 
• 16% of respondents were between the ages of 45 and 54; 
• 19% of respondents were between the ages of 35 and 44; 
• 13% of respondents were between the ages of 25 and 34; and 
• 4% of respondents were between the ages of 18 and 24.

People who approve of the overturning of Roe v. Wade made up a little more than half of the responses, with 51% indicating their support either with a solid “approve” or a written answer that could clearly be interpreted as an approval. The responses making up the remaining 49% came from solid “disapprove” responses or written answers that could be clearly interpreted as a disapproval. Written answers that could not be clearly interpreted one way or another were not included in the analysis of this question.

Some questions confused participants. A question requesting a true or false response to a quote from former President Donald Trump about babies being executed in Virginia, for example, many participants were confused whether the question was asking if babies were actually being executed in Virginia or if Trump simply said that babies were being executed in Virginia. 

This confusion is understandable, and we have made a note for future surveys to take more steps before the release to ensure no confusion for participants.  Questions such as this were thrown out altogether, as the responses could not be considered as credible representations of respondents’ viewpoints due to a higher potential for confusion when answering.

Five comments suggesting the survey was “biased” were from people who identify as Republicans and as Democrats, with one respondent not identifying with any party. 

We plan to conduct more surveys in the future dealing with local, as well as national, topics. Some will be more serious than others. We are not “putting our thumb on the scale” on any of these topics. We are not attempting to block or channel those who do or do not participate. We welcome any thoughtful responses.

If you believe that we are interjecting an opinion by merely asking a question, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Our first survey was a success and a learning experience. Thanks to all who participated.