British don’t support Catholic view of abortion

A new weighted, representative poll of UK faith groups including Catholics and Protestants shows definitive support for a woman’s right to have an abortion in cases of unwanted pregnancy, according to a poll released by Catholics for Choice (CFC)

The YouGov poll, conducted in November, shows a majority of the sample to be more liberal than the 1967 UK law on abortion allows – even where participants identified as belonging to a faith group. The 1967 Abortion Act does not allow UK women to end a pregnancy solely on the grounds of being unintended or unwanted.

Results showed a broad support for legal abortion across all groups. In response to the statement, “It should be legal for a woman to have an abortion when she has an unwanted pregnancy”, 63% of all respondents to the poll strongly agreed or agreed (14% disagreed or strongly disagreed); 58% of self-identified Protestants strongly agreed or agreed (19% disagreed or strongly disagreed); 43% of self-identified Catholics strongly agreed or agreed (27% disagreed or strongly disagreed).

Of special note in the current environment — wherein Catholic bishops have become more aggressively vocal in their efforts to restrict access to abortion — in response to the statement “Catholic bishops concentrate too much of their attention on abortion when there are other issues that also require their attention”, 64% of all respondents to the poll strongly agreed or agreed (8% disagreed or strongly disagreed); 68 % of self-identified Protestants strongly agreed or agreed (7% disagreed or strongly disagreed); 42% of self-identified Catholics strongly agreed or agreed (27% disagreed or strongly disagreed).

The key figures above are that only 27% of Catholics support the bishops/Vatican line on abortion law and that nearly two thirds of the population think the bishops are too involved with abortion issues. This makes sober reading given the Catholic MPs’ moves reported above.

A majority of the sample within each UK faith groups appear to be exposed to the need for, and use of abortion. When asked “Do you know somebody who has had an abortion?” the responses were similar across all the faith groups and those of no religion: 54% of all respondents knew somebody who has had an abortion; Protestants 53 %; Catholics 52%; 56% of those who expressed no religious belief knew somebody who has had an abortion.

President of Catholics for Choice, Jon O’Brien, said, “The poll results demonstrate to us an important point that is often ignored or glossed over in discussions about the law on abortion: namely, that British people, of all faiths and none, trust women and families to make their own decisions when it comes to the choice to terminate a pregnancy or bring a child into the world. Despite what the Catholic hierarchy would like the public to believe, a plurality of British Catholics has chosen to ignore this divisive rhetoric, and instead follow their consciences when it comes to supporting access to abortion. They aren’t looking for bishops to lecture them, or for politicians to tie people’s hands.”

Looking more carefully at these poll results
Careful scrutiny of the poll results themselves (which can be seen here, also revealed some interesting information about the non-believing respondents.

Of the 1983 people who took part in the survey, 885 (45%) defined themselves as “None – I don’t follow any particular religion or code of belief”. Given claims made about the number of humanists, some readers may be surprised that only 12 of the respondents described themselves as “humanist”. They are not included in the 885.

The percentage of all respondents who defined themselves as “None….” falling into the following categories were:

Total – 45%; Male – 50%; Female – 40%; 18 to 24 – 62%; 25 to 34 – 58%; 35 to 44 – 47%; 45 to 54 – 46%; 55 + – 30%; ABC1 – 41%; C2DE – 49%; London – 39%; Rest of South – 45%; Midlands and Wales – 47%; North – 46%; Scotland – 46%.

It is striking how the younger people are more likely to define themselves as non-believers. The lower proportion of non-believers in higher socio economic groups is partly a function of them containing (we suspect) a higher proportion of older people.

14 December 2007