Understanding why women seek abortions in the US

BACKGROUND: The current political climate with regards to abortion in the US, along with the economic recession may be affecting women’s reasons for seeking abortion, warranting a new investigation into the reasons why women seek abortion. METHODS: Data for this study were drawn from baseline quantitative and qualitative data from the Turnaway Study, an ongoing, five-year, longitudinal study evaluating the health and socioeconomic consequences of receiving or being denied an abortion in the US. While the study has followed women for over two full years, it relies on the baseline data which were collected from 2008 through the end of 2010. The sample included 954 women from 30 abortion facilities across the US who responded to two open ended questions regarding the reasons why they wanted to terminate their pregnancy approximately one week after seeking an abortion. RESULTS: Women’s reasons for seeking an abortion fell into 11 broad themes. The predominant themes identified as reasons for seeking abortion included financial reasons (40%), timing (36%), partner related reasons (31%), and the need to focus on other children (29%). Most women reported multiple reasons for seeking an abortion crossing over several themes (64%). Using mixed effects multivariate logistic regression analyses, we identified the social and demographic predictors of the predominant themes women gave for seeking an abortion. CONCLUSIONS: Study findings demonstrate that the reasons women seek abortion are complex and interrelated, similar to those found in previous studies. While some women stated only one factor that contributed to their desire to terminate their pregnancies, others pointed to a myriad of factors that, cumulatively, resulted in their seeking abortion. As indicated by the differences we observed among women’s reasons by individual characteristics, women seek abortion for reasons related to their circumstances, including their socioeconomic status, age, health, parity and marital status. It is important that policy makers consider women’s motivations for choosing abortion, as decisions to support or oppose such legislation could have profound effects on the health, socioeconomic outcomes and life trajectories of women facing unwanted pregnancies

Decision rightness and emotional responses to abortion in the United States: A longitudinal study

Copyright: © 2015 Rocca et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source ar

Accounting for Same-Sex Divorce: Relationship- Vs. Self-Focused Divorce Accounts and the Meanings of Marriage among Gays and Lesbians

To date, few empirical studies on same-sex divorce have been published. This paper presents a grounded theory analysis of in-depth interviews with a small convenience sample of six divorced gays and lesbians in order to address two related questions: how do gays and lesbians account for their divorce experiences? And what do these accounts suggest about the meanings they attach to marriage? Results suggest a distinction between what I term relationship-focused accounts, which explain the account-teller’s divorce by emphasizing that his or her marital bond had come undone, and self-focused accounts, which emphasize how the marriage created problems for the account-teller him- or herself. Furthermore, this paper shows how relationship-focused accounts draw upon the meanings embedded in the companionate model of marriage whereas self-focused accounts draw upon those embedded in the individualized model of marriage

Conceptual model.

<p>Conceptual model.</p

Evaluating the impact of a mandatory pre-abortion ultrasound viewing law: A mixed methods study

<div><p>Background</p><p>Since mid-2013, Wisconsin abortion providers have been legally required to display and describe pre-abortion ultrasound images. We aimed to understand the impact of this law.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We used a mixed-methods study design at an abortion facility in Wisconsin. We abstracted data from medical charts one year before the law to one year after and used multivariable models, mediation/moderation analysis, and interrupted time series to assess the impact of the law, viewing, and decision certainty on likelihood of continuing the pregnancy. We conducted in-depth interviews with women in the post-law period about their ultrasound experience and analyzed them using elaborative and modified grounded theory.</p><p>Results</p><p>A total of 5342 charts were abstracted; 8.7% continued their pregnancies pre-law and 11.2% post-law (p = 0.002). A multivariable model confirmed the law was associated with higher odds of continuing pregnancy (aOR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.01–1.50). Decision certainty (aOR = 6.39, 95% CI: 4.72–8.64) and having to pay fully out of pocket (aOR = 4.98, 95% CI: 3.86–6.41) were most strongly associated with continuing pregnancy. Ultrasound viewing fully mediated the relationship between the law and continuing pregnancy. Interrupted time series analyses found no significant effect of the law but may have been underpowered to detect such a small effect.</p><p>Nineteen of twenty-three women interviewed viewed their ultrasound image. Most reported no impact on their abortion decision; five reported a temporary emotional impact or increased certainty about choosing abortion. Two women reported that viewing helped them decide to continue the pregnancy; both also described preexisting decision uncertainty.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>This law caused an increase in viewing rates and a statistically significant but small increase in continuing pregnancy rates. However, the majority of women were certain of their abortion decision and the law did not change their decision. Other factors were more significant in women’s decision-making, suggesting evaluations of restrictive laws should take account of the broader social environment.</p></div

Monthly rate of viewing the ultrasound image or receiving printout.

<p>Monthly rate of viewing the ultrasound image or receiving printout.</p

Monthly trend & segmented regression models of monthly continuing pregnancy rate.

<p>Monthly trend & segmented regression models of monthly continuing pregnancy rate.</p