Original Articles
Influence of physician attitudes on willingness to perform abortion

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Abstract

Objective: To survey attitudes about abortion in a sample of physicians practicing in the Bronx, New York, identify factors associated with those attitudes, and investigate how attitudes about abortion influence willingness to do it.

Methods: A questionnaire mailed to obstetricians and gynecologists affiliated with a medical school in the Bronx elicited information on attitudes about abortion and the willingness to do it. Attitude scores were measured on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5, with 5 indicating a proponent attitude about abortion. The practice score ranged from 0 to 2, with 2 indicating proponent attitude about practicing abortion.

Results: The median attitude score was 3.8. Physicians were receptive to reasons for abortion that were medically indicated. A proponent attitude was found in non-Catholics and those who were trained in residency programs that required observing abortions. The median practice score was 1.2. The most important personal factors influencing a physician’s decision not to perform abortions included lack of proper training and ethical and religious beliefs. There was a significant positive correlation between the attitude score and practice score (r = .42, P < .001).

Conclusion: Personal beliefs and past experience with abortion are associated with attitudes about abortion that, besides competence doing them, influence physicians’ willingness to do them. Offering training in abortion might benefit physicians who are proponents and willing to perform abortions.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The study population for this survey consisted of resident and attending physicians, in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who practiced in the Bronx. A six-page questionnaire was sent to each physician with a self-addressed, stamped, return envelope. Participants were guaranteed that their responses would remain anonymous. A brief

Results

Of 152 surveys mailed, 82 (53.3%) were returned. Demographic characteristics of the respondents are shown in Table 1. Sixty-five percent of the respondents were male, 82% were white, 90% were attending physicians, and the mean age (± standard deviation) was 47.4 ± 13.8 years.

Median attitude score was 3.8 (interquartile range 3.3–4.3). Table 1 shows that attitudes about abortion were significantly associated with physicians’ religion but not with other demographic factors, such as age, gender,

Discussion

One problem with this study was small sample size, which decreased the statistical power to detect differences. The low response rate might be due to the method of distributing the questionnaire. Mailing was intended to insure anonymity and confidentiality, but abortion is a highly sensitive topic and those polled might have felt uncomfortable answering questions about their attitudes toward it. An anonymous survey was deemed the best method to obtain honest and truthful responses, but reliance

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