Advertisement

Italians: abortions are OK - but not facelifts

Author thumbnail
Italians: abortions are OK - but not facelifts
Facelifts are more acceptable to young Italians than pensioners. Facelift photo: Shutterstock"

Having an abortion is more acceptable to Italians than getting a facelift, despite plastic surgery being popular in the Catholic country, a revealing new survey of the country's social attitudes has found.

Advertisement

Despite the heavy influence of the Catholic Church in Italy, 61 percent of Italians consider abortion acceptable, according to the LaSt survey.

Meanwhile, although more Italians have plastic surgery than most other nationalities, facelifts are acceptable to just 44.3 percent of the population.

The procedure is least appealing to the oldest Italians: 31.8 percent of pensioners find it acceptable, compared to 77 percent of those under 24.

Young Italians also had more relaxed attitudes to abortion, seen as acceptable to 82.5 percent of under-24s compared to 48.7 percent of people over 65.

Although terminating a pregnancy is permitted under Italian law, abortion access is difficult in many parts of the country as doctors can refuse the procedure on religious grounds.

READ MORE HERE: Why doctors in Italy refuse to give abortions

Italians are also relatively open to gay relationships, with 75.2 percent seeing no problem with same-sex couples, despite gay marriage still being illegal in the country.

Reflecting this positive view, the government is due this autumn to begin discussing new legislation to give same-sex couples more rights. Both the political left and right have said they are open to legalizing gay civil unions, although there has been strong opposition to granting adoption rights to same-sex couples.

The LaSt survey touched upon a number of other attitudes, finding that 90.2 percent of Italian society sees no problem cohabitation out of marriage. Italians are also open to artificial insemination (84.4 percent) and euthanasia (75.9 percent).

Along with facelifts, using soft drugs is frowned upon, only acceptable to 44.1 percent of Italians, while prostitution remains a social taboo (27.4 percent). 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also