Abortion survey fails on crucial question

THE latest Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) telephone survey on abortion claims that 64% of the public regard it as acceptable in some circumstances.

Given the way the questions are framed, the results are not at all surprising. The question dealing with abortion makes no distinction between ethical interventions in pregnancy to save the life of the mother and induced abortion where the life of the unborn child is directly targeted.

By ignoring such crucial distinctions the survey is effectively meaningless.

Those advocating abortion legislation seem intent on blurring important ethical distinctions.

There is a fundamental difference between early delivery to protect the life of the mother (though the baby may not survive) and abortion carried out with the intention of targeting the life of the baby.

Polls which take account of these distinctions consistently show pro-life majorities.

It is not the first time the CPA commissioned skewed surveys on abortion.

There is unease within pro-life circles that the agency is spending too much time producing ideologically motivated surveys instead of introducing targeted policies to help reduce our abortion rate.

Dr Berry Kiely

Pro-Life Campaign

34 Gardiner Street Upper

Dublin 1