No consensus to change Queensland abortion law, but strong support for safeguards for women

You could be excused for thinking that the vast majority of Queenslanders would support the decriminalisation of abortion, given the exaggerated claims of the pro-abortion lobby of up to 90% support for legal abortion.

In fact, Queensland voters are evenly split on whether the law should be changed, according to the first comprehensive market research on the abortion issue in the state, which was taken on 15 to 17 October - the weekend after the Cairns abortion trial (see the 51 page report What Queenslanders Really Think About Abortion).

With 13 specific, objectively-worded questions, this randomised telephone poll of 400 Queensland voters avoided skimming the surface of the issue as most past polls have done and drilled down to discover the considered opinion of the Queensland public on the abortion issue now - not one year ago or two years ago.

Conducted by independent market research firm Galaxy Research on behalf of the Australian Family Association, this research shows that there is no consensus among Queensland voters for a change in the law - with 49% either in favor of keeping the law as it is or making it stricter and 47% preferring it to be less restrictive.

Similarly, 50% of Queensland voters say they do not want abortion decriminalised, while 48% are in favour of decriminalisation.

Of course, decriminalisation would mean that abortion would be legal for any reason until birth. That is the model that the pro-abortion lobby is pushing here, and it has been the law in the ACT since 2002 and in Victoria since 2008.

In Victoria, a doctor is supposed to obtain a second medical opinion before proceeding with an abortion past 24 weeks of pregnancy, but in reality this is nothing but a façade and a sham as there is no requirement for the second doctor to see the woman or even look at her file.

Since the law was changed in Victoria two years ago, late-term abortions being performed in the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne have risen six times - from one a fortnight to three a week - and this has put great stress on hospital staff, according to a recent Channel 7 News report.

The Galaxy research showed that Queenslanders are not only conflicted about abortion; they are also uneasy and worried about its negative effects on women, with 77% agreeing that abortion can harm the physical and/or mental health of a woman.

One of the interesting findings in this survey is that when the question was asked, “Up to what stage of pregnancy would you allow abortion”, 29% of Queensland voters said “not at all” and a further 45% said only up to 3 months - meaning that 74% of Queenslanders are opposed to abortion after the first trimester.

A total of 88% of Queenslanders are opposed to late-term abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with only 7% in favor.

The research also showed that 49% of Queenslanders are opposed to abortion for non-medical, that is financial or social, reasons, with 46% in favor.

We know that the vast majority of abortions (an estimated 97%, judging by South Australian Government statistics) are performed for financial or social reasons, not for medical reasons.

So even in the first three months of pregnancy, support for abortion is highly conditional.

These figures indicate a significant level of uneasiness with what decriminalisation would mean, even among those who say they support it.

While there is clearly no consensus to change the actual law on abortion, Queenslanders overwhelmingly want safeguards introduced to protect women.

Almost everyone (94%) believes that before having an abortion a woman should receive free independent counselling and information on the development of her unborn child, the nature of the procedure, the physical and psychological risks of the operation and the alternatives of keeping the child or adoption, so that she can make a fully informed decision.

A total of 88% of Queenslanders support a cooling-off period of several days between making an appointment to have an abortion and the actual operation and 86% support a parental consent requirement for girls under the age of 16.

Also, 86% of Queenslanders support conscientious objection provisions allowing doctors and nurses to opt out of having to perform abortion operations against their will.

If such safeguards were introduced in Queensland, the number of abortions would be significantly reduced. Certainly in 2003 when the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide introduced mandatory independent counselling for women before having an abortion, the number of abortions over the next 12 months fell by 25% (“Advice Curbs Terminations”, Sunday Mail - Adelaide - 25 July 2004).

But the extreme ideologues in Emily's List, a pro-abortion women's group within the ALP, are against the introduction of informed consent requirements to protect and support women. They abolished them in the ACT in 2002 and voted against them in Victoria in 2008 - unmasking themselves as pro-abortion rather than pro-choice. There is only one choice as far as they are concerned.

This research report was delivered to the 89 members of state parliament last month and no doubt they would have been particularly interested in the response to the last question in the poll, which asked “If your local member of parliament voted in favor of decriminalising abortion, would this influence the way you vote at the next state election?”

A total of 55% of Queenslanders said it would not influence the way they vote, but 26% said they would be less likely to vote for their MP if he or she voted to decriminalise abortion, while 14% said they would be more likely to vote for their MP in that case.

This means that members of parliament who may vote to decriminalise abortion in the event of a private member's bill being debated would face an average potential swing of 12% against them at the next election.

Now of course the extent of this swing would be dependent on the effectiveness of a pro-life campaign to remind voters of this issue at election time.

A modest education campaign which consisted of pro-life flyers letterboxed by Voters for Life contributed to an average swing of 2.9% against the pro-abortion MPs in Aspley and Algester over and above the statewide swing against the ALP Government at the 2009 Queensland state election.

A similar flyer letterboxed in three Queensland seats (Bonner, Hinkler and Dickson) at the 2010 federal election contributed to an average swing of 2.09% against the pro-abortion ALP candidates over and above the average statewide swing to the Coalition.

When voters are informed at election time that their member of parliament supports abortion for any reason until birth - a position this poll shows only 7% of Queenslanders are comfortable with - it is not at all surprising that this should produce a swing against them.

So fellow On Line Opinion writer Helen Pringle has engaged in wishful thinking in her attempt to downplay abortion as a potential election issue (see Abortion: Don't Blame the Voters).

With 14,000 abortions performed every year in Queensland, abortion is obviously accessible for those women who seek it.

To those who advocate the removal of all restrictions, I would ask: How many abortions are enough?

The main message of this research to Queensland parliamentarians is that instead of pushing for decriminalisation, they should introduce safeguards and support services for women which would reduce the number of unwanted abortions and the consequent harm to women and families.

Women deserve better than abortion.