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.