(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Half of adults in Canada believe pregnancy termination on demand should continue to be allowed in the country, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 49 per cent of respondents think abortion should be legal under any circumstances.

Conversely, 42 per cent of respondents would allow the procedure only under certain circumstances, while five per cent would make abortion illegal in all circumstances.

In 1967, Canadian justice minister Pierre Trudeau presented a bill to partially liberalize abortion. On the same bill, Trudeau urged for the legalization of homosexuality and contraception, saying, "The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation." The bill was signed into law in 1969, when Trudeau was prime minister.

In January 1988, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled—on an appeal filed by pro-abortion advocate Henry Morgentaler—that Canada’s abortion law was unconstitutional. Abortion is now legal in Canada with no limitation on when to perform it.

Last month, Statistics Canada reported that the country’s abortion rate declined by 3.2 per cent in 2005. Alex McKay—of the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada— discussed the findings, saying, "Over the last quarter-century, many more young women have had access to higher education, better employment opportunities. For many years, they had increasing access to better and more comprehensive health care, including reproductive health care. Those things tend to correlate strongly with declining pregnancy rates."

Polling Data

Do you think abortion should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?

Source: Angus Reid Strategies
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,003 Canadian adults, conducted on Jun. 4 and Jun. 5, 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

Other poll highlights:

46% believe abortion should be permitted in all cases
43% say the health care system should fund abortions whenever they are requested
53% want women under the age of 18 to have parental consent in order to have an abortion

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