Majority of People Reject Criminal Penalties for Abortion According to Opinion Poll
According to an opinion poll released this week, majorities in 17 out of 18 nations surveyed reject the use of criminal penalties such as fines or imprisonment, as a means to prevent abortion.
WorldPublicOpinion.org interviewed 18,465 respondents in 18 geographically and culturally diverse countries representing 59 percent of the world’s population. Respondents were from countries where abortion is legal including the United States and France, and also countries with highly restrictive abortion laws like Mexico, Poland, and South Korea. On average across all 18 countries, 52 percent of respondents favored leaving the matter of abortion to the individual.
“Clearly many governments around the world using criminal penalties to try to prevent abortions are out of step with their publics,” said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org.
WorldPublicOpinion.org is a collaborative research project of research centers from around the world, managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland.
Labels: criminal penalties laws, illegal, Mexico, poll
