Majority of Sask. residents have pro-choice views about abortion: survey
Pro-choice attitudes have risen almost 10 percentage points since 2012, according to survey
According to a recent survey, more than 80 percent of Sask. residents have pro-choice attitudes toward abortion, which marks an increase of 10 percentage points from a similar survey in 2012.
The poll was done earlier this month through a University of Saskatchewan quarterly initiative called Taking the Pulse. Four times a year, researchers call a representative sample of Saskatchewan residents about controversial topics.
In the most recent survey, Taking the Pulse called 402 Saskatchewan residents asking if they believe abortion is a matter of choice and should be decided between a woman and her doctor.
The poll shows 54.5 per cent of participants said they strongly agree, while 26.5 per cent said they somewhat agree.
A similar Taking the Pulse survey was carried out in 2012. In it, 70 per cent of residents had pro-choice sentiments compared to this year's 81 per cent.
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Breaking down the numbers
Data from this month's survey shows people living in urban areas of the province, such as Saskatoon or Regina, are more likely to have pro-choice attitudes than people living in rural areas.
Those polled in urban areas showed 85 per cent pro-choice sentiment, compared to 76 per cent in rural areas.
The survey also shows a difference in opinion based on age in urban areas.
Residents between the ages of 18 and 34 in urban areas have more pro-choice attitudes than residents aged 35 and higher in urban areas.
In fact, everyone polled between 18 and 34-years-old in urban areas expressed pro-choice opinions.
In rural areas, 69 per cent of people aged between 18 and 34 showed pro-choice beliefs.
The initiative is put together through a partnership between the University of Saskatchewan's Social Sciences Research Laboratories and PostMedia News Saskatchewan.
Each quarterly iteration of Taking the Pulse of Saskatchewan is based on 400 completed telephone interviews (landlines and cell phones) among randomly-selected Saskatchewan residents, 18 years of age and older. Each iteration garners an overall margin of error of +/- 4.9% 19 times out of 20. This means that we can expect the results to accurately reflect the opinions of all Saskatchewan residents, 18 years of age and older, to within 4.9% higher or lower than the stated value, 95% of the time. Weights are applied to the data to ensure representativeness by key demographic variables according to the 2016 Canadian Census.