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Survey on community attitudes on early and late abortion

Survey on community attitudes on early and late abortion

Do Australians’ believe that women should be able to access abortion later in pregnancy? A new survey (Australian attitudes on access to early and late abortion. Lachlan de Crespigny, Dominic Wilkinson, Thomas Douglas, Mark Textor, Julian Savulescu MJA 2010; 193: 1-4) of 1050 Australians published in the Medical Journal of Australia shows that the answer is overwhelmingly yes; when there is good reason. These results have broad implications in both Australia and elsewhere.

The survey gives a detailed picture of attitudes in a wide range of clinical and social situations using personalized questions.

The findings contradict a previous Australian Federation of Right to Life Associations survey that suggested that Australians strongly oppose women accessing later abortion. They also contradict some data in surveys from UK, Europe generally and USA (also here). Surveys have tended to be simple yes/no polls asking impersonal non-contextualised questions. Contextualised personal survey questions in other countries may also show greater support for women being able to access late-abortion. The findings are relevant to calls – including from Prime Minister David Cameron –to further limit the gestational limits for abortions in UK.

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Australians support women’s access to late abortion


by Lachlan de Crespigny, Thomas Douglas, Mark Textor and Julian Savulescu

Regular calls to limit numbers of abortions are a familiar cry. Yet people are outraged if a friend or family member with a serious complication in much wanted pregnancy reluctantly requests an abortion but encounters resistance. Or when a woman faces a criminal court, as will happen to Tegan Leach next month in Queensland.

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An Ethical Approach to Abortion

by Julian Savulescu

Abortion should be decriminalised. Early abortion should be freely and easily available on request. Late abortion should be freely and easily available at least for those who have a valid justification: significant fetal abnormality, threat to woman’s health or a serious social reason, for example child pregnancy or rape. Family planning, including safe, free and open abortion services, is an essential part of a civilized society.

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Special Edition: Should we allow late abortion?

There have been a number of articles in the media about abortion in the last few weeks. The British Prime Minister has suggested that the time limit for (relatively) unrestricted access to abortion should be reduced from 24 to 22 or 20 weeks. A survey published tomorrow in an Australian medical journal suggests that the public in Australia support legal access to abortion, and do not believe that doctors should be sanctioned for performing abortion in the later stages of pregnancy if there is a good reason to do so.

This blog collects together resources and media articles relevant to the debate

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Will you live to 100? Should we tell people that they have (or lack) the genes for long life?

In the news today – scientists have identified a cluster of longevity genes. From the Daily Mail A genetic test which tells whether you will make it to your century has been developed by scientists. The computer program will give individuals their odds of reaching the age of 100 – and tell them whether their… Read More »Will you live to 100? Should we tell people that they have (or lack) the genes for long life?

The Charade of Blood Dope Testing

by Julian Savulescu

The latest weapon in the arsenal of doping tests is the blood passport. It aims to track the red blood cell count over the last year. Changes during competition indicate doping.

Of course it is doomed to fail. The reason is red blood cells vary from individual to individual, and the count varies within an individual over time. One way to get around the dope test is to take small amounts of doping agents during the year.  Another way would be to donate some of your own blood after the test and have it retransfused prior to a later test. Even if these methods fail, you can be sure cyclists will find a way around it.

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Ethical questions surrounding the BP Oil Spill

Largest oil spill in U.S. history continues to devastate
Gulf wildlife while the press and independent scientists are continually denied access to
spill site and surrounding beaches.

by Stephanie Malik

On April 20 a wellhead on the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling
platform blew out in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 40 miles southeast of the
Louisiana coastline. What BP had initially claimed would be a spill with
“minimal impact”, 69 days later now constitutes the largest offshore oil spill
in U.S. history. Today the well is conservatively estimated to be leaking at a
rate of 1,900,000–3,000,000 litres per day—though several expert estimates
based on footage of the spill suggest the actual rate is more likely to be 3 to
5 times higher than this. The unusually wide disparity in expert estimates is
due to the fact that BP has continually denied the requests of a number of independent
scientists to set up instruments on the ocean floor that could measure the rate
of the leak more accurately. “The answer is ‘no’ to that,” a BP spokesman, Tom
Mueller, said earlier this month. “We’re not going to take any extra efforts
now to calculate flow there at this point. It’s not relevant to the response
effort, and it might even detract from the response effort.”

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Drugs in sport debate: Opposers response 2

[This is the last of the formal responses in the debate – both debaters will post closing comments at the end of the week. Don't forget to vote next week!]

by John William Devine

Frank Lampard’s ‘goal’ that never was in England’s World Cup defeat to Germany yesterday is an example of sport being held to ransom by tradition. The use of video technology – as used in elite level tennis and rugby – would have confirmed that his shot had crossed the line and England would have been awarded an equalising goal. FIFA continues to block the introduction of this technology on the grounds that human error in refereeing is part of the game. Does the prohibition against doping similarly stifle progress in sport?

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