MELBOURNE, Australia, SEPT. 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Australians are both pro-choice and anti-abortion, according to a private study published in the country.
The research, conducted from 2004 to 2006 by the Sexton Marketing Group, shows that 87% of Australians would like to both reduce the rate of abortion, but also retain the right of women to legal access to abortion. Some 73% say outright that the rate of abortion is too high.
The study was published in "Common Ground?: Seeking an Australian Consensus on Abortion and Sex Education," edited by Father John Fleming, president of the Campion College in Sydney, and Nicholas Tonti-Filippini, senior lecturer at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family.
The research also asked Australians their opinions on sex education, the abortion pill RU-486, cloning and experimentation on human embryos.
Father Fleming said at Monday's launch that "this research should serve as a reality check for public policy decision makers."
"This book set out to discover as objectively as possible the reality of Australian attitudes toward abortion," he said. "What we found is a society deeply conflicted on the question of abortion, a society whose attitudes are much more complex and nuanced than have previously been recognized."
"There is in principle support for a woman's right to choose," added Father Fleming, "but a preference on moral grounds that women in practice either do not choose abortion, but only choose abortion after serious consideration of all of the alternatives."
He continued: "The preference that women have real alternatives to abortion is simply overwhelming -- 96%.
"Equally overwhelming is the desire that women receive all knowledge about the abortion procedure that would be of significance to them, and in particular about the physical and psychological risks to them of having an abortion -- 98%."
Child first
The priest said that the report also asked participants what issues should be considered when making the decision to abort. He said that "70% of the group that identified themselves as personally, strongly pro-abortion, regarded concern for the unborn child as a critical issue to be considered."
"All of this," the priest added, "underscores the deeply ambivalent feelings of Australians toward abortion: They do not want to impose on the woman, but they do expect her to give deep and serious consideration to moral issues and the welfare of the child."
Father Fleming said that 92% favored sex education as a strategy to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and therefore abortion, but only 53% said that they believed sex education in the schools actually works.
Regarding RU-486, he said that 77% believe the drug "should either be disallowed in Australia, or that any discussion about its introduction should be delayed until the risks are better understood."
The priest added that those most skeptical of RU-486 were women of childbearing age: 89% of women 18-24, and 87% of women 25-34, said that it is best to delay the decision or to not introduce the drug at all.
Father Fleming expressed the desire that the debate regarding abortion continue with the involvement of both men and women, "after all, pregnancy usually involves both the man and the woman, and the man has responsibilities which he should not and must not avoid."
He also added a note to members of Parliament: "Social policy ought not be enunciated merely to satisfy the sectional, and ideological interests of party, political, and social activists.
"Let it not be the case that the needs and interests of women, in whose name the laws of abortion reform is said to be pursued, are sacrificed on the altar of ideological dogmatism."
ZE07091904 - 2007-09-19