TRANSCRIPT
Abortion rights have long been a controversial and debated topic around the world.
Abortion is legal throughout Australia, but each state and territory is responsible for abortion law and has different rules.
Market research company Ipsos Australia surveyed 1000 people to investigate how people in Australia feel about the topic.
The Australian results were part of a global survey on the issue.
Public Affairs Director Jessica Elgood says 68 per cent of Australians surveyed believe abortion should be legal.
"Overall in Australia, 4 in 5 or 79 per cent support a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy if the pregnancy has been a result of rape, but there's a gender split there. 83 per cent of women, think they should have the right to end that pregnancy, but only 74 per cent of men so almost a 10 point difference. And similarly, if we look at the data in relation to a pregnancy where the baby is likely to have significant disability, or severe health problems, there's again a 10 point difference between views of men and women in terms of whether or not the women should have the right to terminate."
Ms Elgood says the difference in opinion between generations in the survey was especially surprising.
"Baby Boomers, we see 3 in 5, over 60 per cent of baby boomers support women's right to an abortion. And it's pretty much the same for men and women. But as we split by generations, we see the gap between men and women grow. And then when it comes to Gen Z, we have 61 per cent of women supporting the right to abortion, but that falls down to 47 per cent among men, and so that's really, really interesting in terms of what's going on there in terms of younger men, how they perceive the issue, what are the influences on them, and it's a really, really significant gap."
The survey found 70 per cent of people in Australia think abortion should be legal in the first 6 weeks of pregnancy, while 54 per cent believe it should be legal at 14 weeks, and only 31 per cent at 20 weeks.
Not-for-profit organisation Children by Choice describes itself as committed to providing unbiased information on all unplanned pregnancy options and supports abortion rights.
Daile Kelleher is the chief executive.
She says these results reflect a lack of understanding of the topic.
"It really just shows that the general public doesn't have a real understanding of the different stages of decision making when it comes to pregnancy and the different options that people have. We know that most pregnancies that are terminated are terminated within the first 14 weeks over 90 per cent. And then when we're looking towards 20 plus weeks, it's only about 2 per cent of pregnancies that ended that actually happened at about that stage. And those stages, they're really complex issues. They've got lots of different psychosocial, emotional, physical or mental health impacts. And those decisions are not taken lightly by any of those people."
Ms Kelleher says access to information about abortions is an especially significant issue in multicultural communities.
"We've done a bit of codesign work with people from multicultural communities and they want the information they're actually really keen to know. Is it legal in Australia? How can I access it? Because for some cultures actually accessing an abortion, especially for women that are not married is really important. So I think that we need to make sure that we do have accessible information, either in language or at the very least in Easy English, to make sure that people that need this information regardless of their level of literacy, or how they try and find the information, it's available to them."
Right to Life Australia is an anti-abortion rights group.
President Margaret Tighe says it's not surprising support decreases with the length of pregnancy.
"Well, of course, it's not surprising at all if an abortionist doctor carries out the same procedures of a baby 24 weeks, even up to birth, because most states allow that now, well, that doctor will be paid by Medicare. So that's the world we're living in."
The survey exposed a significant difference in views between men and women in Australia.
It found only 31 per cent of men believe abortion should be legal in all cases, whereas support among women is much higher at 46 per cent.
There's also a divide between men and women when it comes to penalties.
Twenty-nine per cent of men surveyed think a woman who has an abortion should face a penalty, but only 14 per cent of women feel the same way.
Ms Kelleher says that isn't surprising.
"It is actually about punishing women, right? Like it's about punishing women for choices that people don't believe that they should be making. And I think that it's a really scary thing to think that people think that women should be punished for simply becoming pregnant when we know that there are a variety of reasons that people could have an unintended pregnancy or could decide that a pregnancy is not right for them at this stage. And to think about punishing them really worries me that there are members of society that have that lens on it."
On the other side of the issue, Ms Tighe says she supports penalties as a way to prevent people from having an abortion.
"I think there should be a penalty. I think we should be lenient to some extent. I think that there should be some law that says, look, you can't kill your baby, but we're going to help you care for it. And if you feel you can't care for it, for example, well those babies can be placed up to adoption. I think that if we really respected human life, I think we would be taking all steps possible to save those lives to help their mothers."
Around the world, the Ipsos Australia survey of 29 countries found the highest level of support for abortion rights in Europe, with 87 per cent support in Sweden and 82 per cent support in France.
It found the lowest level of support in Asia, with only 22 per cent of support in Indonesia and 29 per cent support in Malaysia.
