Campaigners fighting plans to reform the island’s abortion law have seized on the findings of a poll that they believe undermine the results of an earlier government consultation.

Anti-reform group CARE paid for UK research company ComRes to conduct a telephone poll into the issue.

The questions were compiled by ComRes and former GP Graham McAll, who has campaigned against abortion reform.

The research says that ’86% of Manx adults think that a child should have a right to life before birth’.

This figure is reached by combining the 58% that believe that a foetus’s right to life increases as it develops in the womb and the 28% who think the foetus should have the same rights as the mother.

Other results show that 70% think that the law should be defined so abortion due to gender cannot be allowed and 81% think that all women should see a doctor to ensure that they are not being coerced into having an abortion.

Results also show that there is a 50/50 split of those polled who believed that an abortion for Down’s syndrome should be allowed until late in the term and 48% said that teenage girls should have abortions only with the knowledge of their parents.

The statement that accompanied the results refers to the government’s consultation last year. It notes that 3,644 people took part and that this was still only a small percentage of the island’s population - 4.35% based on 2016 census.

In total, 500 people responded to the ComRes poll.

possibility

While that is fewer than the number who responded to the government’s consultation, Dr McAll said ’we explored the possibility of getting a more statistically sound sample’.

In practice, he said that that meant results that greater reflected Manx societal makeup.

In the government consultation, 77.6% of the respondents were women, whereas the percentage of women on the island is about 50.3%.

In the ComRes poll, men made up 49.6% and women 50.4% of respondents.

Dr McAll said: ’Our poll was developed very much with amendments and clauses stage in mind and so, yes, it did ask questions about some of the more controversial aspects of the bill, just as it also asks questions about provisions that are not in the bill, and questions the online survey missed.’

However, the politician behind the bill, Dr Alex Allinson MHK did not share this opinion, saying he believed it did not reflect the clauses in the bill and raised doubts about the ComRes survey.

He said: ’We don’t mention Down’s syndrome or allowing abortion based on gender of the foetus, for example.’

He also raised concerns with the polling for a question regarding ’teenage girls to be allowed abortions without the knowledge of their parents’.

Dr Allinson explained that teenager stretches from a girl of 13 to one of 19 and that matters such as this are subject to Gillick competency and Fraser guidelines, which are important parts of medical law.

Gillick competency allows for medics to treat under 16s without parental knowledge or consent as long as the teenager understands what the implications are.

Fraser guidelines relate more to contraception and focus on preferred parental involvement but an acceptance in law that this may not be desired by the child, who again must understand the implications of their decision.

When the survey was carried out, some people expressed concerns about its legality.

At one point, the police said the survey method was illegal but had to issue an apology later because it was, in fact, within the law.

The government’s six-week consultation ended on September 18.

In total, 3,644 individual submissions were received including 24 from groups and professional organisations.

majority

An overwhelming majority - 87% (3,171 respondents) agreed a woman should have the choice to request an abortion up to 14 weeks.

A total of 84.7% agreed a rape victim should be able to request an abortion without reporting the offence.

Some 81.5% agreed that a woman should be able to request a termination at any stage of the pregnancy, including after 24 weeks, if the foetus has a fatal abnormality.

A total of 73.2%of those polled thought that there are circumstances in which an abortion should be provided after the 24th week.