BRITISH and American voters have sharply different attitudes to churchgoing and abortion. A new Populus poll for The Times shows that opinion in the US on moral issues is far more polarised than in Britain.

Labour and Conservative voters are much closer in their attitudes than were supporters of President Bush and Senator John Kerry during the American presidential election. There are sizeable dissenting minorities among Bush and Kerry voters.

In general, British voters take more liberal attitudes on moral issues such as abortion than many Americans.

The main exception in Britain is over same-sex couples. Tory voters are even more opposed to same-sex marriage than Bush voters, let alone than Labour voters. This is distinct from legally recognised civil unions that were debated in the Commons yesterday.

A big contrast from the US is that, in Britain, moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriages are debated as matters of personal conscience rather than between parties. MPs usually have free votes on such moral questions, with frequent voting across party lines.

Opposition to abortion has never been a requirement for selection as a Conservative candidate, as it is for many Republicans. That is partly because Baroness Thatcher backed abortion subject to restrictions and prevented it becoming a party issue during the 1980s.

Similarly, Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, yesterday announced his support for stem-cell research because of the hope it offers to people suffering from illnesses such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease and Alzheimer’s. This contrasts with the strong opposition of Mr Bush to stem-cell research.

Populus asked the same questions about moral values as were included in the exit poll conducted for the American elections last week by the National Election Pool on behalf of the main television networks and the Associated Press. The US questions were phrased in ways which produced overlapping, and partly contradictory, answers in some cases.

The most striking contrast is over the scale of churchgoing. Nearly three fifths of Bush voters (58 per cent) say they go to church weekly, as do two fifths of Kerry voters (41 per cent). By contrast, a mere 10 per cent of Labour supporters, and 13 per cent of Tories say they attend church weekly.

On abortion, British voters of all parties are much more in favour of a woman’s right to choose than Bush voters. Roughly three quarters of voters say abortion should always be legal or mostly legal. But that is the view of only just over half of all US voters.

Labour voters are more inclined than Tories to back a woman’s absolute right to choose, by 45 to 34 per cent — midway between the views of Bush and Kerry supporters. But that is partly offset by the slightly higher proportion of Tory than Labour supporters, 40 to 35 per cent, who say that abortion should be mostly legal subject to some restrictions.

Moreover, more than three quarters of Bush voters say that abortion should not be permitted under any circumstances. A total ban on abortions is supported by only 4 per cent of British voters.

The transatlantic gulf appears narrowest in attitudes to relationships between same-sex couples. However, attitudes divide sharply along party lines. In the US, fewer than a quarter of Bush voters, but more than three quarters of Kerry voters, say same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally.

In Britain, nearly twice as many Labour as Tory voters (33 to 18 per cent) think that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally, though roughly equal numbers back civil union.

Moral attitudes are not uniform in America. About a third of Bush supporters say they never go to church and a quarter say that abortion should always be legal regardless of the circumstances. By contrast, more than a fifth of Kerry supporters say abortion should always be illegal.

The Populus interviews were undertaken from among a random sample of 1,504 adults between November 5 and 7. Full details can be found on: www.populuslimited.com

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