President Barack Obama’s decision on Monday to permit federal funds for a greater spectrum of embryonic stem cell research is likely to be met with overwhelming support in the Gopher State, as well as the Upper Midwest generally.

Obama’s directive overturns his predecessor’s policy that limited the use of federal taxpayer dollars to simply the 21 stem cell lines that had been ‘harvested’ prior to former President George W. Bush’s 2001 executive order.

Polling by SurveyUSA conducted on this issue just shy of 1.5 years ago (in October 2007), found more than twice as many Minnesotans supported stem cell research generally (63 percent) than those that opposed it (27 percent).

The results were quite similar in the neighboring states of Iowa (66 percent in support, 28 percent in opposition) and Wisconsin (64 percent in favor, 29 percent opposed).

Like the issue of abortion rights, partisan support for stem cell research finds Democrats overwhelmingly in favor of the policy, as well as a majority of independents. But opposition by Republicans tends to be slightly more muted than that on abortion, and, as a result, support for stem cell research across the political spectrum is a good shade stronger than that of abortion rights.

For example, in recent years notable Republican leaders like conservative Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and former First Lady Nancy Reagan lobbied the George W. Bush administration to permit federal funding of stem cell research. Hatch’s rationale was that, “Stem cell research facilitates life…Abortion destroys life; this is about saving lives.”

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Posted in Health, Iowa, Minnesota, National Politics, Presidency, Wisconsin

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