Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterA MAJORITY of Jamaicans are against making abortion legal, a recently commissioned Don Anderson poll has shown.
However, despite the opposition, the poll also shows that Jamaicans have differing views on the circumstances under which an abortion can be permitted.
In a poll conducted on behalf of The Gleaner Company by Don Anderson and his team at Market Research Services Limited, nearly 80 per cent of the 1000 respondents interviewed disagreed with the idea that the laws should be changed to make abortion legal.
STRONGLY OPPOSED
Most Jamaicans are strongly opposed to the concept of abortion, the poll showed.
The survey was conducted islandwide between February 3 and 11, and with persons aged 18-years and over. It has a margin of error of + or - 3.2 per cent.
The respondents have in essence dismissed recommendations from several medical practitioners and Margarette Macaulay, human rights advocate who stated at a Gleaner's Editors' Forum in January that abortion should be legalised and regulated in Jamaica. They argued that legalising and regulating abortion would reduce the number of unsafe abortions and lessen maternal death and disability associated with it.
However, the Church, which has strong membership locally, has taken a tough stance on abortion, believing it to be morally wrong.
Jamaicans also have differing opinions on the circumstances under which an abortion is acceptable. For example, the poll showed that nearly 45 per cent of respondents believe abortion is wrong under any circumstances.
"Fifty-five per cent disagree with the view that ... having an abortion can never be justified. This is the general pattern across all age groups with the exception of older persons (older than 55 years) where the majority feel that there is no circumstance that can justify abortion," the pollster said.
In addition, 83 per cent agreed that abortion is okay if it is being done to save the mother's life.
However, many of these who agreed were in the young age groups, between 18 and 25 years.
OK IF RAPED OR ABUSED
Just over 57 per cent believed abortion was permissible if the mother was raped or abused. Majority (80.5 per cent) do not think it is acceptable for a pregnant woman to abort her child because she did not want the child. Less than 20 per cent thought it was okay for a woman to have an abortion just because she wanted it.
Health Minister, John Junor said in January that while abortion is a political issue, abortion laws remain unchanged because of a "lack of evidence".
