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“Irish Examiner” Poll on Abortion “Misleading” and “Meaningless”, PLC Says : 4th Feb 10
“Irish Examiner” Poll on Abortion “Misleading” and “Meaningless”, PLC Says
A poll in the "Irish Examiner" newspaper last week showing 60 per cent of 18-35-year-olds favouring abortion has been called “meaningless” by the Pro Life Campaign (PLC). The poll, done by Red C for the paper, was part of a survey of young people’s attitudes on sex.
In a statement, spokesperson Dr Ruth Cullen strongly criticised the survey’s methodology and the misleading way in which the paper presented the story on its front page. Dr Cullen said that given the questions asked, the results were “not surprising”.
They “made no distinction”, she explained, “between necessary medical treatments in pregnancy and induced abortion, (where the life of the unborn child is directly targeted)”.
“This, in effect, makes the findings meaningless and sheds no new light on public attitudes to abortion”, she continued.
Referring to public opinion research by Millward Brown IMS, Dr Cullen noted that polls that distinguish between standard medical treatments and induced abortion “consistently show majority opposition to legal abortion”.
She noted, too, that the latest Red C survey confined its interviews to 18-35-year-olds: “Clearly, then, the findings are not representative of the general population. She also mentioned that only 36 per cent of those interviewed “strongly” approved of legal abortion, though the paper’s headline asserted that 60 per cent did. The report also ignored evidence that 18-35-year-olds start becoming more pro-life as they get older, Dr Cullen said.
All surveys on the issue bear this out, she went on. “All things considered, it was extremely misleading for the paper to run with today’s front-page headline declaring: 60% on Favour of Legal Abortion”, she commented.
The study also showed that 10 per cent of young people had been in a relationship in which a baby was aborted, and one in four women aged 18-35 had had an unplanned pregnancy. CI News. January 22.
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