Attitudes To Abortion - trends
Ipsos has been examining attitudes to abortion on behalf of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) via surveys since 1997. These findings have also been trended with a 1980 MORI question on abortion from a survey for the Sunday Times.
Ipsos has been examining attitudes to abortion on behalf of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) via three surveys since 1997. These findings have also been trended with a 1980 MORI question on abortion from a survey for the Sunday Times.
Q Abortion should be made legally available for all who want it.
| 1980 | 1997 | 2001 | 2006 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1,943) | (2,006) | (2,140) | ||
| % | % | % | % | |
| Agree very strongly | 15 | 15 | 20 | 14 |
| Agree strongly | 10 | 15 | 14 | 13 |
| Agree | 29 | 34 | 29 | 31 |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Disagree | 17 | 13 | 12 | 16 |
| Disagree strongly | 8 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| Disagree very strongly | 11 | 7 | 7 | 5 |
| No opinion | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| All Who Agree | 54 | 64 | 62 | 59 |
| All Who Disagree | 35 | 25 | 25 | 27 |
Q If a woman wants an abortion, she should not have to continue with her pregnancy?
| 2001 | 2006 | 2011 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| (2,006) | (2,140) | (943) | |
| % | % | ||
| Agree very strongly | 19 | 13 | 15 |
| Agree strongly | 15 | 15 | 12 |
| Agree | 31 | 34 | 27 |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 15 | 16 | 22 |
| Disagree | 7 | 11 | 8 |
| Disagree strongly | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Disagree very strongly | 6 | 3 | 5 |
| No opinion | 3 | 3 | NA |
| All Who Agree | 65 | 63 | 53 |
| All Who Disagree | 17 | 18 | 17 |
Q Do you approve or disapprove of abortion under the following circumstances?
| Approve | Disapprove | Don't know | |||||||
| '97 | '01 | '06 | '97 | '01 | '06 | '97 | '01 | '06 | |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| Where the woman is under 16 (footnote 1) | 58 | 64 | 60 | 29 | 20 | 24 | 13 | 15 | 16 |
| Where there is evidence that the child would be born with serious learning difficulties that used to be known as 'mental handicap' (footnote 2) | 67 | 64 | 55 | 20 | 21 | 28 | 13 | 15 | 17 |
| Where there is evidence that the child would be born with serious physical disabilities (footnote 3) | 66 | 70 | 64 | 21 | 15 | 20 | 13 | 15 | 16 |
| Where a woman does not wish to have a child (footnote 4) | 42 | 50 | 48 | 46 | 33 | 38 | 12 | 16 | 14 |
Footnotes
- The wording of this statement differed in 1997, as follows: 'Where the woman is under the age of consent'.
- This statement was worded as follows in 1997: 'Where it is likely that the child would be mentally handicapped or mentally disabled'.
- The following wording was used in 1997: 'Where it is likely that the child would be physically handicapped or physically disabled'.
- The following wording was used in the previous study: 'When the woman does not wish to have a child for whatever reason'.
