PR: Illfounded Results in Abortion Poll
11.12.1997
Youth Defence rejects as illfounded the results of the Irish Times/MRBI Opinion poll published in today's edition of the Irish Times.The results show contradictory answers to what are essentially the same questions for example where it purports that 62% agree with the High Court decision in the C Case but only 23% believe that legislation should be in accordance with that decision.
Moreover and more importantly it is clear that the poll put the spurious question of the Mothers life being at risk to people in spite of the ruling by the Medical Council and the leading obstetricians and gynaecologists in Ireland that no such circumstances exist. If the result for those against abortion in all circumstances (18%) is added to the figure for life at risk (35%) the total for those against abortion in all the circumstances which actually exist in the real world comes to 53% which would certainly be somewhat closer to a reliable conclusion.
It should further be noted that a figure of 28% for those that believe abortion should be available for those that "need it" is a meaningless one. The question here is so obscure that the result must be equally obscure. What is meant by "needing" abortion? No explanation is provided either to the reader of the Irish Times nor one must imagine to the people who were polled. Clearly the opinion pollsters used very questionable methods to arrive at their conclusions and it will do the credibility of the MRBI organisation no good at all to present such unscientific and fundamentally unsound information. The poll is obviously designed to put pressure on the government to accept demands for legislation in the mistaken belief that this is the will of the Irish people which it is certainly not.
Youth Defence would remind both politicians and media than in commenting on these results it ought to be borne in mind that they are at odds with other polls carried out recently and similiar one stretching over a considerable period of time. The only poll that could possibly be acceptable is one taken of the electorate as a whole in a referendum on an amendment to outlaw abortion in in Ireland.
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