Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Irish Examiner survey on attitudes to abortion.


A survey of attitudes on abortion, carried out in the farming community in conjunction with one of Ireland’s farming organisations, the ICMSA, was published in the Irish Examiner on Sept 22nd. According to the survey, 64% of farmers favour amendment of Article 40.3.3, to allow for abortion on wider grounds. 34% of respondents said they were opposed to any changes to the Amendment and 2% of respondents chose the ‘don’t know’ option. The question was framed as follows: “The 8th Amendment to the Constitution granted equal rights to the mother and her unborn child. Do you think it should be amended to allow for abortion in certain circumstances or not?”

This survey was carried out following blatant media reporting bias on the issue during recent weeks which appears to be aimed at persuading political parties to include removal of the pro-life amendment from the constitution in their political manifestos in the run up to the upcoming general election.