Is public opinion in support of decriminalisation?
Ann Marie Gray, Kaye Wellings · Policy Press eBooks · 2020
In this chapter we ask: how does the UK public view abortions? Is there support for removing specific criminal prohibitions against abortion? How does support vary with the grounds on which an abortion can be carried out? And what are the influences on public attitudes towards abortion? Public opinion in Northern Ireland is dealt with separately in this chapter since change in the legislative and policy-related backcloth in the past decade has been considerably more dramatic in that region than in the rest of the UK. Abortion tends to polarise debate as few social issues can. The subject combines emotive concepts of sex and death and raises fundamental questions about being human, such as when life begins. Abortion touches on many contentious issues, such as the right of women to control their own bodies; the responsibility of the state to protect the fetus; the tension between secular and religious views of human life; and the conflicting rights of the mother and the fetus (Weale et al, 2012). Also central to debates around abortion is whether the expression of sexuality should extend beyond procreation. Since there is still a residual view in western culture that the prime function of sex is procreation, discussion of abortion often leads to references to blame and retribution. Any heated policy debate is generally accompanied by uses and misuses of statistics to support different sides of the argument. We rely on the findings of social research and opinion polls to access public views on an issue.