Support for abortion in all circumstances falls by 5%

NEW DATA on attitudes to abortion show fewer under-45s believe it should be allowed in all circumstances, but more believe it should be allowed in some.

The Irish Contraception and Crisis Pregnancy Study 2010 found 45 per cent of adults believed abortion should be permissible in all circumstances, down from over 50 per cent in a similar study in 2003. And 44 per cent said it should be available under certain circumstances, up from 39 per cent in 2003.

The Health Service Executive study, which involved more than 3,000 people aged 18-45 years, put seven different scenarios to respondents and asked them if abortion should be available under those circumstances.

It found 95 per cent of respondents believed a woman should be allowed to have an abortion if the pregnancy seriously endangered her life. And 89 per cent said it should be available if it endangered her health.

Pregnancy following rape was seen as a permissible reason for abortion by 88 per cent of people, and 86 per cent believed it should be available for pregnancy as a result of incest.

Some 44 per cent of respondents thought if a child was identified as having a “serious abnormality”, abortion should be available.

A small number, 14 per cent, believed that abortion should be available if the reason for it was that the woman was not married or in a stable relationship.

And 11 per cent thought it should be available if the couple could not afford another child.

The study also found 35 per cent of women had experienced a crisis pregnancy at some stage in their lives and, of these pregnancies, 21 per cent had ended in abortion. This figure had increased from 15 per cent in 2003.

The report also highlighted cultural differences around abortion experience. It took a sample of 260 women from Poland and Nigeria and asked them about crisis pregnancies.

None of the Polish women said they did anything to affect their pregnancies once they discovered they were pregnant, while one-third of the Nigerian women said they had abortions.

All adults in the study were also asked about their knowledge of abortifacients – medications or herbs which induce abortion. Some 13 per cent were aware of their existence with more women than men saying they knew about them.

Of those who did know about abortifacients, 75 per cent were aware their use was illegal. And over half said they could be obtained for use in Ireland through international websites.