The people have overwhelmingly rejected the NSW Parliament’s plan for abortion based on sex selection, according to polling to be released by the Australian Christian Lobby.
The YouGov Galaxy opinion survey conducted over the weekend comes days before Legislative Council debate on an abortion bill which would allow abortion to birth, along with no prohibition on sex selective abortion.
The issue of sex selective abortions has been a key theme during the Legislative Council’s rushed inquiry into the bill.
Along with the question on sex selective abortions, the YouGov Galaxy Poll asked respondents questions related to the stage of pregnancy in which abortion should be permitted and whether life-assisting care should be given to babies born alive during an attempted abortion procedure.
The results of the survey show that elected MPs are completely out of touch with the mainstream opinions of their communities.
- On the question “should abortion be permitted on the basis of the gender of the unborn child?” Only 8.6 percent of respondents agreed, 83.9 percent disagreed, and 7.5 percent were undecided.
- The number of people opposed to abortion after 22 weeks was 70 per cent. Less than 1 in 5 New South Wales voters (18.5%) support abortion after 22 weeks. In its current form, the bill before parliament would allow abortion right up until birth.
- On the question “should the law require doctors to give life-assisting care to babies born alive during an attempted abortion procedure?” Respondents were 59.5 percent in favour of the care and 17.9 percent opposed. A large 22.6 percent were undecided.
- Notably, of all those who voted Coalition at the recent state election, 28% or over 500 000 indicated that they would have been less likely to vote Coalition had they been aware of the plan to change the abortion laws.
Comments attributable to: Kieren Jackson, NSW Director, Australian Christian Lobby
“This poll shows that MPs backing this bill are out of touch with their community’s concerns around late term abortion, sex-selective abortions, and the care given to babies born alive.”
“This radical abortion law is being rammed through without public support. The community, who have been excluded and ignored, reject this extreme bill.”
Methodology
The survey was conducted between Thursday 15 August and Saturday 17 August 2019. The sample comprises 1,029 eligible voters, distributed throughout New South Wales including Sydney, regional and rural areas.
Quotas were applied based on age, gender and region to ensure the sample reflected the broader population.
Following the completion of interviewing, the data was weighted by age, gender and region to reflect the latest ABS population estimates.
ENDS.
