Although often depicted as a contentious issue, a new poll suggests that the majority of Irish people would support abortion on demand.
Amnesty International conducted the Red C Poll, which was published last Wednesday, and found that 60% of people believe women should have access to an abortion on demand outright or without gestational limits.
Of the 1,000 people interviewed between the 16th and 19th of October, 89% believed that women should have access to abortion when their health is at risk, 85% when the pregnancy is a result of rape and 81% when there is a diagnosis of a fatal foetal abnormality.
64% would be in favour of an abortion where there is a serious but non-fatal foetal abonormality and 72% agreed that it should be based on a woman’s socio-economic circumstances.
Speaking with The Irish Times, Colm O'Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International, felt the information founded by the poll highlights that the issue of abortion is not as divisive as it has been portrayed:
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A substantial majority, 60 per cent, want women to have access to abortion on request which gives a clearer picture of the kind of legal and medical abortion framework the Irish public want. The poll also shows just how strongly the public support access to abortion in other circumstances such as when the woman’s physical or mental health is at risk...some political and media commentators continue to paint abortion as a controversial or divisive. It is not. They claim that people in Ireland would not support the recommendations put forward by the well-informed members of the Citizens’ Assembly who overwhelmingly voted for women to have abortion on request in early pregnancy and in specific circumstances thereafter.
