Tuesday, October 06, 2009

More Australians backing abortion rights

Some 57 percent of Australians support a woman's right to an abortion any time they want one, a third backs the procedure in "special circumstances", while only 4 percent is totally opposed, an Australian Election Study showed.

The poll of 1,873 electors in the 2007 Federal Election reportedly found that 45 percent of Catholics favour unfettered access to abortion, with only 7 percent opposing it in all circumstances.

It showed that Australians have become more liberal on the matter compared to two decades ago, when similar polling found only 38 percent supporting unfettered abortion, said a Sydney Morning Herald report published in the Brisbane Times.

Katharine Betts, adjunct associate professor of sociology at Swinburne University and author of the study, said the notion that liberalising abortion laws would cost votes was wrong.

"Abortion is one of those issues that doesn't fit neatly into a left versus right continuum, and politicians feel it's dangerous to try to change the status quo in the face of a very vocal anti-choice lobby," she was cited saying. "But they're wrong. Voters are more likely to vote for a pro-choice candidate than an anti-choice candidate."

Baptists and Pentecostals, "while few in number", are much more opposed to freedom of choice than are Catholics, the study reportedly shows.

Clear majorities of Liberal and Labor voters are pro-choice, the news report added.
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