Karl: Canadian views on abortion are often more nuanced than we think

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We live in an age of access to technology and knowledge. Never before have you had so much information and perspectives at your fingertips on any topic. So why does it feel like we live in an age of reductive, oversimplified debate about some of the most complex issues?

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Canada’s status as one of the few countries in the world without laws guaranteeing or limiting access to abortion, as political and medical battles escalate after Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned in the United States this summer has become the subject of renewed debate. this year. Still, the experiences, fears, challenges and choices that three out of ten Canadian women have faced with unwanted pregnancies in their lifetime are her one of the least discussed aspects of the abortion debate.

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Instead, we return to the most reductive terms: “pro-life,” “pro-choice,” which demand absolutism in policy and legislative matters. Think: Protesters yelling at women outside abortion clinics. And political leaders are preventing parties from representing parties who don’t have a wholly “pro-choice” view.

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Still, Canadian opinion, which included the aforementioned women faced with the difficult decision of what to do with an unwanted pregnancy, turned out to be more nuanced and mixed. It is backed up by studies of part composition.

Indeed, when asked to place themselves on the spectrum, most people are clearly on one end or the other. While 8% said they “completely agree” that they believe abortion can be accepted at any time, regardless of age, and if the mother’s physical health is at risk. We believe abortion is never acceptable except in exceptional circumstances.

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Still, 40% (representing millions of Canadian adults) would place themselves ‘somewhere in between’ along the continuum of pregnancy if they decided abortion would be acceptable.

In particular, these views may transcend personal experience. Her one-third of women who had an induced or surgical abortion classified themselves in the “abortion” category. Nearly half of women who have had unwanted pregnancies to full term say they are “completely in favor of the choice.” In other words, the decisions they make for themselves do not entirely dictate how they view the problem as a whole. They are able to separate decisions about what is best for them from how they feel about the whole issue.

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New data, due early next week, make it clear again that individual views on the issue are not necessarily reflected in policies aimed at supporting or reinforcing those views. Did you think that people who self-identify would also support policies that would make it more financially acceptable for single mothers to raise their children alone? Think again.

If there is an opinion that those who identify as “fully in favor of the election” fully agree with banning the candidacy of the elected representatives, if those candidates do not feel the same way , hold on to that idea.

As for the desire for abortion laws, there is, but maybe not for the reasons you think.

In other words, in fact, Canadians are more than capable of simultaneously holding complex and sometimes contradictory views in their heads. increase.

Yet the public narrative on the issue focuses on and moves toward the same dichotomy that seems to define recent political and policy debates.

This issue (and many others) lacks the views of those with lived experience and those in between. It’s time to start listening.

killer whale is the president of Angus Reed Institute, A national, non-profit, non-partisan poll foundation.