Follow WTOP’s coverage of the Virginia Election 2023.
With the Virginia election fast approaching on Nov. 7, how are voters feeling on the hot topics before heading to the polls?
According to a survey of more than 800 people online and via landline by the Wason Center, 49% of likely voters in Virginia said they support keeping the law on abortion as is, and 23% said it should be less restrictive.
Under current Virginia law, abortion is banned at the third trimester.
Twenty-four percent of likely voters said that abortion laws should be more restrictive.
When asked specifically about a possible ban on abortions at 15 weeks, 54% opposed it and another 6% are saying they don’t know, compared to 39% who said they support it.
“I think it is telling that a majority of Virginians are saying they don’t want this,” said Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo, research director at the Wason Center for Civic Leadership. “So that’s certainly an interesting finding and notable for these elections.”
Pronouns, transgender athletes and bans on books were some of the topics regarding education during a recent survey ahead of the upcoming election.
“Voters show strong support for requiring parental notification if a student wants to go by pronouns that differ from their birth certificate,” Bromley-Trujillo said.
Sixty-seven percent of likely voters in the organization’s survey said that parental notification should be required.
When it comes to sports, 65% of the people that took the survey said that transgender athletes should not be able to be a part of an athletic team that matches their gender identity.
But when it comes to transgender bathrooms, “there’s more of a close split on the question of transgender students using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity — 53% would oppose such an action and that’s pretty small majority,” she said.
Book bans among survey participants were unpopular, with 84% saying they do not think that a book should be removed if a parent objects to a book in the public school library.
“It’s pretty clear that Virginians aren’t a big fan of book bans,” Bromley-Trujillo said.
