UK's attitudes on abortion (why that card won't help the tories)

[sonicx]

this article/poll is a little old (Nov 2004)...

The most striking contrast is over the scale of churchgoing. Nearly three fifths of Bush voters (58 per cent) say they go to church weekly, as do two fifths of Kerry voters (41 per cent). By contrast, a mere 10 per cent of Labour supporters, and 13 per cent of Tories say they attend church weekly.

On abortion, British voters of all parties are much more in favour of a woman’s right to choose than Bush voters. Roughly three quarters of voters say abortion should always be legal or mostly legal. But that is the view of only just over half of all US voters.

Labour voters are more inclined than Tories to back a woman’s absolute right to choose, by 45 to 34 per cent — midway between the views of Bush and Kerry supporters. But that is partly offset by the slightly higher proportion of Tory than Labour supporters, 40 to 35 per cent, who say that abortion should be mostly legal subject to some restrictions.

Moreover, more than three quarters of Bush voters say that abortion should not be permitted under any circumstances. A total ban on abortions is supported by only 4 per cent of British voters.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1351930,00.html

The Cardinal who's trying to make this an election issue is probably hurting tories more than Labour.

[non sociopath skin]

1. ... and hurting the Catholic Church more than either.

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The Times misinterpreted the American results a bit

I told them at the time, but they never published a correction.

The phrase "more than three quarters of Bush voters say that abortion should not be permitted under any circumstances" is wrong. What that survey says is that, of those who think abortion should always be illegal, three quarters are Bush voters. Look at the Bush voter and Kerry voter columns, and you'll see they always add up to 100% (or 99, due to rounding).

Here is a post I did at the time, which produces the correct American figures. This gives: half of Bush voters go to church weekly, and a third of Kerry voters. The attitude of Tory voters to abortion is about the same as Kerry voters.

[T_i_B]

3. Even amongst us religious folk

the abortion issue is not anything like as much of an issue as in the US. There are much greater concerns about the government's gambling bill, and about fair trade.

I've got to admit that I'm agreement with Blair about one thing, abortion is best left as a matter for the conscience of MP's rather then as a party political football as it is in the US.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. It's good to see that England doesn't let this one personal issue...

decide an election like it does here in the U.S.

[tjwmason]

5. The split in America which is now almost to the point of cliche

Does not exist.

The argument is not between those who support totally unrestricted abortion, and those who support a pretty much total ban. We're talking about 24 weeks vs. 22 weeks - which is hardly the material to motivate vast hoards to battle on both sides.

Also it's not a partisan thing, in general one might see a tendancy towards looser laws by most Labour M.P.s, and a tendancy towards tighter laws by most Tories but neither party would dream of having a policy on abortion.