87% against legalisation of abortion, survey shows
Almost 87 percent of respondents to a survey have declared themselves against the introduction of abortion, the pro-life group Gift of Life said today.
A similar survey last year found that 88% disagreed with the legalisation of abortion. The figure for 2008 was 84.5%.
The surveys were carried out by Informa Consultants among a nationally representative sample targeting the general public. A total of 500 respondents were interviewed.
The main findings of this year's survey were that 87% were against the legalisation of abortion, 4% agreed that abortion should be legalised and 9% felt that abortion should only be legalised in some cases.
Out of those who agreed that abortion should be legalised or that abortion should be legalised only in some cases, 50% felt that abortion should be legalised for cases of rape - equivalent to 6% of the total population.
Despite stating that abortion should be legalised in cases of rape, almost 68% of this group believed that that the embryo in rape cases has just as much value as the life of embryos conceived in other circumstances.
Furthermore, 29% of this segment changed their opinion in favour of abortion in rape cases when asked a further question ‘Research has shown that women who kept their baby after rape actually claim that keeping their baby helped them to overcome the trauma of rape. Does being aware of this fact change your opinion about abortion in cases of rape?'
26% reported that this did not influence their opinion while 45% said they did not know.
Gift of Life stressed in a statement that while some sections of society had claimed that the introduction of divorce would lead to the introduction of abortion, it was not taking an official position in favour or against divorce.
It however, was interested in better understanding the public's opinion about a possible association between divorce and abortion. In view of this, respondents were asked, ‘If divorce was legalized in Malta, do you think that this would prepare the way and make it easier for abortion to be legalized?
36% answered ‘yes', 47% answered ‘no' to this question and 17% said they did not know.
Gift of Life said that support for its proposal for the introduction of a Constitutional amendment to provide clear guarantees for the right to life from conception remained high with 73%.
The full research findings will also be available for readers to view or download from the Gift of Life website from 4pm. www.lifemalta.org
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Ramon Casha
Oct 20th 2010, 06:19
Incidentally the "fact" given in this survey about raped women benefiting from having the child was apparently taken from a book by a vociferous pro-life activist, David Reardon. Hardly the unbiased source you'd use to get meaningful, unbiased results.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reardon
If you're going to conduct a survey, at least do it properly. I wonder whether the structure of the survey was selected by Informa Consultants, and if not, whether they are happy that their name is being used to give an air of legitimacy to this charade.
Ramon Casha
Oct 20th 2010, 06:15
This survey methodology is deeply flawed and its results worthless.
As could be seen from the surveys conducted by The Times, MaltaToday and Xarabank, people's answers to such surveys vary significantly depending on the question asked. In their surveys on divorce, when people were simply asked "Do you agree with divorce", a small majority said "no", but when it was qualified by asking "Do you agree with divorce with the safeguards as proposed by JPO", a majority said yes.
In this survey on the other hand, when a person stated they were against abortion, those conducting the survey were instructed to skip all the questions which asked about abortion in specific circumstances, such as rape or incest. On the other hand, those who were in favour of abortion were led to a series of overtly loaded questions which started with dubious statements to the effect that rape victims benefit from having their baby, then asked the same question again, trying to elicit a different response.
This can't even be called a survey.
Joseph Vassallo
Oct 19th 2010, 18:43
Has everyone forgotten that, not such a long time ago, where a choice was forced between saving the life of a new-born or saving the life of the labouring mother, the church (ergo Christianity) decreed that the child had to be saved. This meant that the life of the mother had to be sacrificed.
How does the church stand now on this, considering that sacrificing the life of a child or that of a mother is sacrificing a life whichever way one looks at it?
Joseph Vassallo
Oct 19th 2010, 19:32
Oh! And what about the separating of conjoined twins where only one can survive? Where does everyone stand on that issue?
Jesmond Micallef
Oct 19th 2010, 20:57
I have commented on that on this same website.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100926/local/bright-future-for-gracie
J A Borg
Oct 19th 2010, 17:16
Andrew Cachia: "Catania in Sicily is just 100km away and costs 500 Euros. There are daily flights and ferries." Is this by chance the information on the visiting cards you give to every girl you date, just in case any accident should happen????
The information is so straightforward....! It is possibly the easiest solution for any 'mistake'. If what you lead us to believe is true, than I suggest that YOU dish out the 500Euros every time!!
After all, for you a human life is not worth more than 500Euros!
Joseph Vassallo
Oct 19th 2010, 18:31
Can you explain further please? Andrew Cachia did not mention visiting cards given to dates? For all you know he is an aged person with wisdom behind him. Maybe you can explain.
Now that medicine has advanced to a stage where a defective pregnancy can be detected from the very beginning of the term, I believe that parents should have a choice as to whether or not to continue with a confinement that will lead distress. The question that is unavoidable is, "Is life worth living?" and the answer has to be, "It depends on the liver". So if a child is to be born into a miserable or vegetative existence, maybe the parents should have the final word.
I am not talking about pregnancies resulting from promiscuity.
These surveys cannot be taken seriously since they can be gerrymandered to produce a wanted result. As an example, I would say that 500 people coming out of church on a Sunday morning and 500 coming out of some rave party would produce a result that differs substantially.
anthony girard
Oct 19th 2010, 16:40
Here we go again !
Ernest Vella
Oct 19th 2010, 16:27
bozza hamra...fuq id-divorzju m'hemmx krucjati imma jekk jazardaw iressqu xi ligi dwar l-abort...imsieken huma...il-politici huma avzati.
M'HEMMX RISPETT GHAL MIN HU QATTIEL TA TRABI
Jesmond Micallef
Oct 19th 2010, 18:13
Serah rassek Ernest, lanqas qatt, ibqa cert !!!
ANDREW FARRUGIA
Oct 19th 2010, 19:03
Just you wait, Mr Vella, just you wait. Time will tell what the post-modern nihilists will get away with; be prepared for euphemisms like "female reproductive choices" and "sweet death"; just you wait.
Joe Grima Brussels
Oct 19th 2010, 16:11
Mr Ronald Cauchi. 1 Hour ago. Yes, there IS an indirect connection between abortion, divorce, and I dare say, even euthanasia. These three actions are the result of finding the easy-way-out because we are getting used to living without wishing to be inconvenienced, or rather, avoiding our 'uncomfortable' duties. If we have trouble in our married life (I'm not referring to extreme cases here), our FIRST duty is to try by all means to reconcile, BUT the EASIEST solution is to divorce. If an 'unwanted' child is coming, our FIRST duty is to take care and protect it, BUT the EASIEST way out is abortion. And if someone is too old, too sick, or too much of a burden, our FIRST duty is to help him, BUT the EASIEST way out is euthanasia. So, yes, there is a little connection there.
Aldo Busuttil (not the Singer)
Oct 19th 2010, 16:04
Abortion is not justified in not way. You cannot kill a human being (including babies during pregrancy). I know of cases where the doctors (specialists) told the parents that the baby will not survive and luckily the baby not just survived but also made improvements... So what's the use of having abortion introduced???? Another thing... mistakes cannot be deleted by an abortion (what's the baby's fault)... We do much fuss about mistreatment of animals, etc... so now we are suggesting killing innocent babies - This is the new world. I can only accept abortion only in cases of health (life treathining circumstances).
Ronald Cauchi
Oct 19th 2010, 15:52
Its amazing how charitable christians are in describing thoe who disagree with them. Let me just list three epithets from today's Times... depraved; moral pygmies, ignorants.And as for their logic its as sound as saying ..."An elephant is an animal. A dog is an animal. Therefore an elephant is a dog".
Joe Cassar
Oct 19th 2010, 15:30
"Research has shown that women who kept their baby after rape actually claim that keeping their baby helped them to overcome the trauma of rape."
What research? Who carried it out? What was the methodology?
Joseph Aquilina
Oct 19th 2010, 18:21
I think you had a bigger chance of getting your question asked if you sent them an email rather then post here! don't you think? Re-phrasing your question will most probably also help a lot!!
Jesmond Micallef
Oct 19th 2010, 15:19
To specifically quote here : "Research has shown that women who kept their baby after rape actually claim that keeping their baby helped them to overcome the trauma of rape."
Well that just shows that nothing beats the joy of life. A fascination in its on right, from a couple of cells to a fully fledged new born. They grow up and become adults and may be have their own children too......and the cycle continues.....life is massive, its colossal.
James Pace
Oct 19th 2010, 15:18
Ronald Cauchi, Kenneth Cassar.
Your own words are your judge. It seems you are attacking this group to hide the fact that you are against their principle of defending the right of the unborn. Nobody has the right to decide who should live and who should die especially the unborn who cannot defend themselves. The whole scientific issue revolves on wether there is life from the begining of conception but even an ignorant should know that if there wasn't life no baby would evolve. If you wanted to do a constructive criticism you should have proposed to do the survey on a larger sample because 500 is quite few when compared to the population of Malta.
Robert Callus
Oct 19th 2010, 16:03
Wrong. Because one disagrees with the tactics of an organisation that calls itself 'pro-life' it doesn't mean one is pro abortion. I am against abortion, because I value life (my principles, no religious reason). However, without any reservation I am in favor of divorce for those who need it. I am also against any organisation that links these two issues that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with each other EXCEPT that the Catholic church is against them both.
James Pace
Oct 20th 2010, 10:19
Robert,
Before shouting Wrong Maybe YOU should LEARN TO READ BETTER. "Gift of Life stressed in a statement that while some sections of society had claimed that the introduction of divorce would lead to the introduction of abortion, it was not taking an official position in favour or against divorce."
As you can see there is no link because Gift of life has no position on divore. The link was made by the people who were intervied and thus if this is not correct it shoul be correct by groups pro divorce and not by the groups who have nothing to do with divorce.
Joe Cassar
Oct 19th 2010, 15:14
The survey results depend heavily on how the questions are put.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yhN1IDLQjo&feature=related
Ronald Cauchi
Oct 19th 2010, 14:52
If according to Gift of Life 37% of people questioned think that there is a conection between divorce and abortion, it is incumbent upon them to explain to people that there is no direct or even indirect connection between divorce and abortion.....that is if they are only interested in preventing abortions and do not have any hidden agendas or axes to grind.
Kenneth Cassar
Oct 19th 2010, 15:00
That's the problem with extremists. Short of saying outright lies, they have no qualms about not saying the truth if this serves their agenda.
Bob Gauci
Oct 19th 2010, 15:01
There is a connection betwen the two. The loss of family values and the 'closing an eye' to the laws of God.
John Smith
Oct 19th 2010, 15:02
But there is a link! The introduction of abortion almost always follows the introduction of divorce. The reasoning is the same: people who marry should have a right to divorce. Abortion is introduced when people erroneously believe that they have a right to terminate a pregnancy!
Andrew Cachia
Oct 19th 2010, 15:08
Catania in Sicily is 100km away and costs 500 euros. their are daily flights and ferries
Mike F Abbot
Oct 19th 2010, 15:28
Bob Gauci
in which case murder & rape will be next right? i mean, they are all 'closing an eye' to the laws of god aren't they?
honestly, GET A GRIP!