It seems that Canadians aren’t the only ones uniformed about their country’s abortion legislation:
One in two people in the city’s western suburbs don’t know that abortions are legal but 65% know that it’s illegal to find out the gender of the unborn child, a new survey says. […] “The government is rightly publicizing the PCPNDT Act that prohibits sex-determination tests and sex-selective abortions, but it has not been highlighting the women’s right to abortion. There is confusion among people over the legality of abortions,” said Laxmi Menon, a coordinator with Women Net- working.
And in Canada? A January 2013 poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion asked “Speaking about abortion in Canada, which of the following do you think is true?”
- 23% said, “A woman can have an abortion at any time during her pregnancy, with no restrictions whatsoever.”
- 7% said, “A woman can have an abortion at any time during her pregnancy, but only if her life is in danger, if she has been the victim of rape, or if the fetus has serious defects.”
- 45% said, “A woman can have an abortion only during the first three months of her pregnancy, with no other restrictions.”
- 13% said, “A woman can only have an abortion during the first three months of her pregnancy, and only if her life is in danger, if she has been the victim of rape, or if the fetus has serious defects.”
- 12% said, “Not sure.”
Only 23% of Canadians got it right. Perhaps our government should be informing the public about the abortion status quo? Maybe Canadians wouldn’t be comfortable with it once they were informed?
And perhaps our government should be condemning sex-selection abortion? Because it’s.a.bad.thing. Hmmmmm….
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