Abortion - Poll about Australian Views
The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has linked to a recent survey on Australian opinions on abortion.

The Southern Cross Bioethics Institute has an executive summary on its website.

There is quite a few interesting tidbits of information in the summary.

• 62% of people surveyed supported abortion on demand, but only 15% thought that abortion was morally justified (except for the hard cases)


• 58% do not accept the argument that the foetus is not a person


• 75% accept that abortion gives the woman control over her own body


• 87% wanted to see the abortion rate decreased in Australia


• 22% thought they were well informed about the topic of abortion


• 71% support greater public discussion on abortion


• 76% believe that men have an equal right to public comment


• 58% do not know where they could refer someone for alternative pregnancy support


• 85% think abortion is morally acceptable in the case of severe disability, and 60% in the case of mild disability


• 94% think that women should have to seriously consider all the alternatives before having an abortion


• 78% think that women should be required to have counselling before an abortion. This figure goes down to 72% if only looking at those who are strongly pro-abortion.

All I can say is that Australians seem to be more pro-life than I expected.

ACL also has an estimate of the cost of providing mandatory independent counselling ($28 Million per year) and ultra sounds during that counselling ($5 million per year) which according to this recent study, seems like a good investment. In addition, these costs would be offset by the decrease in medicare funded abortions.

The current ACL push in Australia is to require independent counselling and get ultrasounds, and so this study strongly supports that position. Hopefully, many politicians will become aware of these prevailing attitudes and we can save some loves.

One other thing to note is the arguments that need to be addressed most. It is clear that most australians favor debate and male inclusion in the debate. I hope this is a wake up call for some of our politicians who simply try to shut down any discussion or claim it isn't something 'men' should comment on.

The strong support for the argument that 'it is a woman's right to control her own body' means that this is an argument that needs to be seriously addressed, as well as the arguments for abortion the disabled. It is suprising to see that 58% of people do not accept the personhood argument, and continual focus on this should increase that percentage.

Generally, this is quite an encouraging study and it should help to push the 3rd party counselling and ultrasounds, which should continue to increase awareness and opposition to abortion.
- posted by Alan Grey @ Monday, May 16, 2005