40/2020
2020-12-21
Young Adults on the Right to Abortion
On the basis of their answers to seven questions about whether they find abortion acceptable in various situations*, respondents were divided into the following four groups: 1) those who would make access to abortion more restrictive than the current law allows (40%); 2) those who accept termination of pregnancies in situations in line with the current law (36%); 3) those accepting abortion beyond the provisions of the current law (23%); 4) and those who gave mixed responses (1%). Compared to surveys of four years ago, there is an increase in support for the current law (known as the abortion ‘compromise’) and in the percentage of those who would liberalise it. The percentage of respondents who say they would make the law more restrictive is lower than ever.
However, it is particularly worth looking at the change that has occurred over the last four years in the opinions of the youngest adults. In 2016 their attitude to the legal regulation of terminations was similar to that of all those surveyed taken together, and in some cases was even more restrictive. Now their attitude to abortion is considerably more liberal than that of older respondents.
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More on this subject in the CBOS report.
This ‘Current Events and Problems’ survey (366) was conducted using a mixed-mode procedure on a representative sample of named adult residents of Poland, randomly selected from the National Identity Number (PESEL) register.
Respondents independently selected one of the following methods:
– Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI);
– Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI), respondents receiving researchers’ telephone numbers in an introductory letter from CBOS;
– Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI), where respondents filled in the online questionnaire independently, gaining access by means of a login and password provided in an introductory letter from CBOS.
– Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI);
– Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI), respondents receiving researchers’ telephone numbers in an introductory letter from CBOS;
– Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI), where respondents filled in the online questionnaire independently, gaining access by means of a login and password provided in an introductory letter from CBOS.
In all three cases the questionnaire had the same structure and comprised the same questions. The survey was carried out between 5 and 15 November 2020 inclusive on a sample of 1052 people (43.0% using the CAPI method, 42.4% CATI and 14.6% CAWI).
