Results of Turkish-European Public Opinion Survey on Abortion

In his speech at the International Parliamentarians' Conference, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sparked a heated debate by saying "abortion is murder." Research shows that Western countries are in fact no strangers to debates on abortion. Particularly for Catholic societies, abortion is a sensitive issue with both religious and political dimensions. Although the US Supreme Court, in its 1973 ruling (Roe v. Wade), recognized abortion as a constitutional right under certain conditions, abortion remains one of the issues dividing American politics even today. Moreover, the debates in America have at times involved violence, and some abortion clinics have been attacked.

The World and European Values Surveys have measured public attitudes toward abortion since their inception. The attached study, published by BETAM (Bahçeşehir University Center for Economic and Social Research), sets out the approach of Turkish and European public opinion to abortion between 1990 and 2011.

According to the study, while support for abortion was stronger in the 1990s, opposition to abortion has increased in the 2000s. Over a period of about 20 years, the proportion of those who find abortion acceptable under the specified conditions has fallen by half (even below half), something very rarely seen in social phenomena.

CLICK HERE FOR THE STUDY ON TURKISH AND EUROPEAN PUBLIC OPINION ON ABORTION 1990-2011