The Pew Research Center’s 2013 Global Attitudes survey asked 40,117 respondents in 40 countries what they thought about eight topics often discussed as moral issues: extramarital affairs, gambling, homosexuality, abortion, premarital sex, alcohol consumption, divorce, and the use of contraceptives. For each issue, respondents were asked whether this is morally acceptable, morally unacceptable, or not a moral issue.
The Star has a piece on the survey, hitting the highlights of most and least tolerant countries of the various practices.
But the real story is in the third category -- "not a moral issue."
Have a look at the results for abortion.
Canadians rate abortion as unacceptable at 26%, acceptable at 29%, and not a moral issue at 37%.
For comparison, those numbers for the US are 49%, 13%, and 23%.
And for France: 14%, 38%, and 47%.
Canada is second only to France in the world in considering abortion not a moral issue, edging out Jordan at 36% and Australia at 32%. (We're doing all right in the morally acceptable category too, but still far behind Czech Republic [49%], Japan [44%], Germany [43%], and France [38%].)
Pro-choicers in Canada obviously still have work to do, but this survey gives good grounds for optimism.
Canadians are comfortable with our lawless abortion regime -- a solid majority of us (66%) think abortion is acceptable or not an issue.
The inescapable takeaway: Canada is a pro-choice country.
And not likely to change despite fetus fetishists' SHRIEEEKING.
