A LARGE MAJORITY of the Irish public support the introduction of legislation to allow abortion under the circumstances permitted by the Supreme Court ruling in the ‘X Case’, an opinion poll has indicated.

The Red C poll published in this morning’s Sunday Business Post reveals that 85 per cent of respondents said they would support the introduction of laws to allow abortion in circumstances when the mother’s life is threatened, including through the risk of suicide.

82 per cent of voters also said they would support a change in the constitution to expand abortion so that it was also available to mothers who had been impregnated as the result of a rape.

However, somewhat incoherently, 63 per cent of people said they would also support a constitutional amendment to limit the X Case criteria – which is based on the text of the constitution as it currently stands – to remove the threat of suicide as grounds for an abortion.

36 per cent of respondents to the poll, conducted between Monday and Wednesday of last week, said they would support a constitutional amendment to allow abortion in any cases where a pregnant woman wanted to have one.

1,003 adults were polled by telephone by pollsters Red C.

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