abortion research paper topics

Home — Blog — Topic Ideas — 50 Abortion Essay Topics: Researching Abortion-Related Subjects

50 Abortion Essay Topics: Researching Abortion-Related Subjects

Abortion remains a contentious social and political issue, with deeply held beliefs and strong emotions shaping the debate. It is a topic that has been at the forefront of public discourse for decades, sparking heated arguments and evoking a range of perspectives from individuals, organizations, and governments worldwide.

The complexity of abortion stems from its intersection with fundamental human rights, ethical principles, and societal norms. It raises questions about the sanctity of life, individual autonomy, gender equality, and public health, making it a challenging yet critically important subject to explore and analyze.

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the significance of choosing the right abortion essay topics and abortion title ideas , offering valuable insights and practical advice for students navigating this challenging yet rewarding endeavor. By understanding the multifaceted nature of abortion and its far-reaching implications, students can make informed decisions about their topic selection, setting themselves up for success in producing well-researched, insightful, and impactful essays.

Choosing the Right Abortion Essay Topic

For students who are tasked with writing an essay on abortion, choosing the right topic is essential. A well-chosen topic can be the difference between a well-researched, insightful, and impactful piece of writing and a superficial, uninspired, and forgettable one.

This guide delves into the significance of selecting the right abortion essay topic, providing valuable insights for students embarking on this challenging yet rewarding endeavor. By understanding the multifaceted nature of abortion and its far-reaching implications, students can identify topics that align with their interests, research capabilities, and the overall objectives of their essays.

Abortion remains a contentious social and political issue, with deeply held beliefs and strong emotions shaping the debate on abortion topics . It is a topic that has been at the forefront of public discourse for decades, sparking heated arguments and evoking a range of perspectives from individuals, organizations, and governments worldwide.

List of Abortion Argumentative Essay Topics

Abortion argumentative essay topics typically revolve around the ethical, legal, and societal aspects of this controversial issue. These topics often involve debates and discussions, requiring students to present well-reasoned arguments supported by evidence and persuasive language.

The Bodily Autonomy vs. Fetal Rights Debate: A Balancing Act
Exploring Abortion Rights: An Argumentative Analysis
Gender Equality and Reproductive Freedom in the Abortion Debate
Considering Abortion as a Human Right
The Impact of Abortion Stigma on Women's Mental Health
Abortion: A Controversial Issue
Persuasive Speech Outline on Abortion
Laughing Matters: Satire and the Abortion Debate
Abortion Is Bad
Discussion on Whether Abortion is a Crime
Abortion Restrictions and Women's Economic Opportunity
Government Intervention in Abortion Regulation
Religion, Morality, and Abortion Attitudes
Parental Notification and Consent Laws
A Persuasive Paper on the Issue of Abortion

Ethical Considerations: Abortion raises profound ethical questions about the sanctity of life, personhood, and individual choice. Students can explore these ethical dilemmas by examining the moral implications of abortion, the rights of the unborn, and the role of personal conscience in decision-making.

Legal Aspects: The legal landscape surrounding abortion is constantly evolving, with varying regulations and restrictions across different jurisdictions. Students can delve into the legal aspects of abortion by analyzing the impact of laws and policies on access, safety, and the well-being of women.

Societal Impact: Abortion has a significant impact on society, influencing public health, gender equality, and social justice. Students can explore the societal implications of abortion by examining its impact on maternal health, reproductive rights, and the lives of marginalized communities.

Effective Abortion Topics for Research Paper

Research papers on abortion demand a more in-depth and comprehensive approach, requiring students to delve into historical, medical, and international perspectives on this multifaceted issue.

Medical Perspectives: The medical aspects of abortion encompass a wide range of topics, from advancements in abortion procedures to the health and safety of women undergoing the procedure. Students can explore medical perspectives by examining the evolution of abortion techniques, the impact of medical interventions on maternal health, and the role of healthcare providers in the abortion debate.

Historical Analysis: Abortion has a long and complex history, with changing attitudes, practices, and laws across different eras. Students can engage in historical analysis by examining the evolution of abortion practices in ancient civilizations, tracing the legal developments surrounding abortion, and exploring the shifting social attitudes towards abortion throughout history.

International Comparisons: Abortion laws and regulations vary widely across different countries, leading to diverse experiences and outcomes. Students can make international comparisons by examining abortion access and restrictions in different regions, analyzing the impact of varying legal frameworks on women's health and rights, and identifying best practices in abortion policies.

List of Abortion Research Paper Topics

The Socioeconomic Factors and Racial Disparities Shaping Abortion Access
Ethical and Social Implications of Emerging Abortion Technologies
Abortion Stigma and Women's Mental Health
Telemedicine and Abortion Access in Rural Areas
International Human Rights and Abortion Access
Reproductive Justice and Other Social Justice Issues
Men's Role in Abortion Decision-Making
Abortion Restrictions and Social Disparities
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Abortion Access
Alternative Approaches to Abortion Regulation
Political Ideology and Abortion Policy Debates
Public Health Campaigns for Informed Abortion Decisions
Abortion Services in Conflict-Affected Areas
Healthcare Providers and Medical Ethics of Abortion
International Cooperation on Abortion Policies

By exploring these topics and subtopics for abortion essays , students can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of the abortion debate and choose a specific focus that aligns with their interests and research objectives.

Choosing Abortion Research Paper Topics

When selecting research paper topics on abortion, it is essential to consider factors such as research feasibility, availability of credible sources, and the potential for original contributions.

Abortion is a complex and multifaceted issue that intersects with various aspects of society and individual lives. By broadening the scope of abortion-related topics, students can explore a wider range of perspectives and insights.

Abortion Social Issue
Exploring the Complexity of Abortion: Historical, Medical and Personal Perspectives
Abortion: A Comprehensive Research
An Examination of Abortion and its Health Implications on Women
Abortion Introduction
Comparative Analysis of Abortion Laws Worldwide
Historical Evolution of Abortion Rights and Practices
Impact of Abortion on Public Health and Maternal Mortality
Abortion Funding and Access to Reproductive Healthcare
Role of Misinformation and Myths in Abortion Debates
International Perspectives on Abortion and Reproductive Freedom
Abortion and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Abortion and Gender Equality in the Global Context
Abortion and Human Rights: A Legal and Ethical Analysis
Religious and Cultural Influences on Abortion Perceptions
Abortion and Social Justice: Addressing Disparities and Marginalization
Anti-abortion and Pro-choice Movements: Comparative Analysis and Impact
Impact of Technological Advancements on Abortion Procedures and Access
Ethical Considerations of New Abortion Technologies and Surrogacy
Role of Advocacy and Activism in Shaping Abortion Policy and Practice
Measuring the Effectiveness of Abortion Policy Interventions

Navigating the complex landscape of abortion-related topics can be a daunting task, but it also offers an opportunity for students to delve into a range of compelling issues and perspectives. By choosing the right topic, students can produce well-researched, insightful, and impactful essays that contribute to the ongoing dialogue on this important subject.

The 50 abortion essay ideas presented in this guide provide a starting point for exploring the intricacies of abortion and its far-reaching implications. Whether students are interested in argumentative essays that engage in ethical, legal, or societal debates or research papers that delve into medical, historical, or international perspectives, this collection offers a wealth of potential topics to ignite their curiosity and challenge their thinking.

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples

Abortion is a highly controversial issue because it involves a conflict between a woman’s bodily autonomy and a fetus’s right to life. Due to the complicated nature of this problem, one can come up with many research questions on abortion. On this page, you’ll find plenty of interesting and thought-provoking abortion title ideas and essay examples. Read on to get inspired!

📚 Subtopics for Abortion Essays

🏆 best essay topics on abortion, 👍 good abortion research topics & essay examples, ✍️ abortion essay topics for college, 🎓 most interesting abortion research titles, 💡 simple abortion paper topics, 🌶️ hot abortion ideas to write about, 🤔 abortion research questions, 📝 abortion argumentative essay topics, ✏️ abortion questions for essay, 🔎 questions about abortion for research paper.

Do you need to write a paper on pregnancy termination but don’t know where to begin? Here are some general abortion topics to write about. You can use them as a starting point for developing more nuanced research questions about abortion for your assignment.

Analysis of Advantages and Disadvantages of Abortion
Ethical Egoist and Social Contract Ethicist: On Abortion
Why Abortions Should Be Legal?
Should Abortion Be Banned?
Should Abortions be Legal?
The Controversy Around Morality of Abortion
Abortion in Hanafi and Maliki Schools of Islamic Thought
Deductive and Inductive Arguments: Granting Abortion Rights
Abortion: Women’s Health as Their Integral Right
The Dilemma of Abortions: Consequentialist and Deontological Points of View
Is Abortion Beneficial or Harmful To a Teenager? Abortion is the removal of a pregnancy before it is due. It is the elimination of a fetus or embryo from the mother’s uterus before it is due for birth.
Social Exchange Theory and Abortion Legalization While the risk of having financial issues influences individuals, they will be more likely to refuse to give birth to a child because of the possible losses in the future.
Abortion: An Ethical Dilemma There are many reasons as to why abortion poses an ethical dilemma for most women. Reasons such as religious beliefs, medical concerns are easily resolved by reason and need.
Ethics and the Right to Abortion The paper discusses a case in which a gynecologist must decide to perform an abortion for a woman who is a survivor of abuse in a state that prohibits the practice.
“Why Abortion Is Immoral” the Article by Don Marquis The selected text for analysis relates to the ethical issue of abortion since its title is “Why Abortion is Immoral” by Don Marquis.
Abortion in Marquis’, Bentham’s, Biblical Theories Some people believe that abortion is impermissible under any circumstances, even if the child is ill or if it was conceived as a result of rape.
Discussion of Legalization of Abortion The paper presents annotated bibliography of sources aims at providing a clear view of various policies and laws around the globe on abortion.
Legal and Ethical Issues Concerning Abortion in the United Kingdom Samantha can legally have an abortion if she meets the legal requirements stipulated in the United Kingdom abortion Act of 1967.
Abortion: Comparing Advantages and Disadvantages Pro-life and pro-choice have their respective stands regarding the issue of abortion. The question is whether to terminate or keep the pregnancy.
Pros and Cons of Abortion Undergoing abortion is a very difficult step to take for any woman and it takes a lot of guts to take the decision. This paper will throw light upon the pros and cons of abortion.
The Moral and Legal Status of Abortion This paper discusses Warren’s work “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion,” which raises a question about the status of any given fetus and whether it made the latter a person.
Reproductive Health and Abortion Practices in Fiji The legalization of abortion has always been a difficult and contentious topic of discussion, both in the academic field and in politics.
Thompson’s ‘A Defense of Abortion’ and Hursthouse’s ‘Virtue Theory and Abortion’ This paper is a reading summary of two articles on the ethics of abortion, such as ‘A defense of abortion’ and ‘Virtue theory and abortion’.
Violinist Analogy in Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion” This example of Thompson’s article demonstrates what kind of a burden women are obliged to deal with in case they live in a society that prohibits abortions.
Ethics in Society. Abortion Debates: Different Sides The history of abortion witnessed that “millions of women suffered injury or death at the hands of abortionists operating illegally”.
Debate of the Dangerous Consequences of Abortion In order to cope with the various problems resulting from abortion, it is mandatory to create an awareness campaign that informs people of the dangerous consequences of abortion.
Utilitarianism and Abortion: Mill’s Principle of Utility and Bentham’s Felicific Calculus The issue of abortion is often approached from spiritual or religious standpoints, and utilitarianism arguably has the potential to provide a refreshing perspective.
The Need for Abortion and the Moral Status of the Fetus The people who rely on religious postulates are likely to see a fetus as a creature that is supposed to have the same rights as the child that is already born.
Abortion and Its Moral Status Sometimes, our decisions inevitably affect other people’s lives and therefore involve a wide range of moral issues. This is the case with abortion.
The Judith Thomson vs. Don Marquis Abortion Debate Thompson agrees that murder is immoral, as the Marquis believes, but a woman has every right to get rid of the fetus, and outsiders have the right to help her.
Reflection on “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thomson In her moral philosophy essay, “A Defense of Abortion,” Judith Jarvis Thomson implements thought experiments to argue in support of abortion based on two core premises
Abortion Policies: History, Current Issues, and Social Workers’ Roles This discussion is aimed at discussing abortion policies with regard to the Constitution, their history, current issues on abortion, and social workers’ roles.
Abortion: Analysis of the Main Causes The causes of abortion are not universal around the world; they vary depending on the country and region of residence.
Abnormal Fetus, Its Moral Status and Abortion Ethics Abortion is a medical procedure that involves the surgical elimination of the fetus from a female’s womb with the purpose of ending a pregnancy.
Abortion: Pros and Cons Abortion should be illegal because unborn babies are considered human beings by the US Government, making abortion murder.
Abortion Nursing Care and Patient’s Rights The U.S. has many abortion laws and limitations; furthermore, the procedure is widely frowned-upon in the American society.
The Issue of Abortion: Ethics Challenges The debate about abortion in terms of ethics has been in place for decades ever since this medical procedure was first legalized by the government.
Fetal Abnormality and Ethical Dilemms of Abortion In the case study “Fetal Abnormality,” four characters face the same problem: an abnormal condition of a fetus and the necessity to decide if to save a child or consider abortion.
A Defense on Abortion: Ethical Issues Abortion is considered the intended action to expel a fetus from the womb of a woman. The expulsion of a fetus leads to death, the intentional expulsion of a fetus is murder.
Abortion: Arguments for Defense Abortion should be accepted as a way of curbing unnecessary maternal death and showing compassion to rape victims.
Abortion: Arguments in Support This essay will explore the medical reason for an abortion to be performed. It will ask the pertinent question of why abortion should remain legal with limitations.
Abortion: The Ethically Appropriate Procedure Based on the available evidence and the considerations of women’s rights, treating abortions as an ethically appropriate procedure seems to be a more reasonable position.
Social Justice Protests Regarding Abortions This study aims to understand abortion rights and how they were significant in women’s equality. Roe v. Rode was a case that challenged the rule about abortion.
Abortion in Christian and Non-Christian Ethics The Christian ethical system approaches the issue of abortion through God’s image and character while utilitarianism is concerned with maximizing happiness.
Abortion Is a Woman’s Right and Should Be Legal Abortion is one of the most controversial topics in our society. Some believe that a woman has the right to choose what happens to her body and believe that abortion is murder.
The Controversy Around Abortion in the US In the US, the issue of abortion has been facing controversy. The disagreement from society is making it difficult to address the problem.
Abortion With Limitations: Analysis Since abortion remains a divisive issue due to the presence of divergent opinions, permitting it with specific limitations is a good decision.
The Abortion Prohibition Issue Analysis The paper analyzes the issue of the irrationality of abortion prohibition due to the ideological, sociological, medical, and legal perspectives.
Abortion Should Be Available in Modern Society Abortions should be allowed for every woman within the framework of respect for human rights and eliminating undesirable consequences for a woman’s health.
Ethical Aspects of Abortion: A Moral Dilemma This paper discusses the ethical aspects of abortion, a controversial and highly debated topic that raises religious, moral, and other fundamental issues.
Justifying Abortion From Utilitarian Position This paper argues that abortion should be justified since a woman’s body, health and future should depend on her own consensual and conscious decisions.
Abortion Ban and Its Negative Consequences The choice to ban abortion will have a severe impact on women; doctors must engage judges in case a clinical feticide are necessary, causing a delay that might result in death.
Abortion Abolitionists and Pro-Life Activists While both abortion abolitionists and pro-life activists share a variety of fundamental beliefs, they also vary in their approach and interpretation of women’s rights to abortion.
American Democrats’ Pro-Abortion Beliefs The US political system consists of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. The chosen news article elaborates more on the Federal Abortion ban from these two perspectives.
Sex-Selective Abortions Around the World Sex-selective abortion is a problem that must be addressed if we take into account the place of women in society and the effects of sex choice on interpersonal relationships.
Decriminalizing Abortion for Women’s Health’s Sake The debate for and against abortion has caused controversies worldwide, with some groups ruling out the act as heinous.
Ban on Abortions as Current Civil Rights Issue Even if a woman leaves a child for upbringing due to an unplanned pregnancy, it will be difficult to talk about a good emotional climate in a family.
The Morality of Selective Abortion and Genetic Screening The paper states that the morality of selective abortion and genetic screening is relative. This technology should be made available and legal.
Right to Abortion and Related Ethical Issues This paper applies the utilitarianism approach to ethics in showing that women that have been raped or have some health complications should be free to terminate their pregnancy.
“Why Abortion is Immoral” by Don Marquis Don Marquis is an author of an essay that argues that abortions are immoral from a non-religious standpoint. He begins with a general discussion on why killing is wrong.
Abortion: A Pro-Choice Rally in Charlotte The article discusses the author’s experience at a pro-choice rally in Charlotte, NC, where a Christian preacher attempted to reason with the protestors and spread God’s message.
Women’s Reasons for Seeking Abortions The cause-effect essay aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion by exploring the reasons why women seek abortions.
The Advantages and the Dangers of Abortion The paper states that the right to abortion allows a woman the freedom to control their body. It also empowers pregnant people to manage their health.
Supreme Court’s Abortion Ruling Sets Off New Court Fights The article discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to ban abortions and give states the right to decide on their local level whether they want to prohibit it or not.
Abortion in Public Opinion and Legislation Supporters of abortion believe that embryos and fetuses cannot have full human rights since the fetus is not yet a human being.
Right to Abortion: Ethical Issues On the one hand, abortion is the woman’s right to protect her life; on the other hand, abortion touches upon two lives minimum.
Women’s Right to Abortion: Religious Perspective Some religious people are right to accept the US court decision on limiting women’s right to abortion. They believe that the act is murder because life starts at conception.
Ethical Issue: Abortion Should Be Legal Abortions should be lawful because morally justifiable activities should be legal: it is an injustice to punish behaviors that are not bad.
Roe v. Wade: Abortion Rights in the United States Since the beginning of May, the United States has been discussing the possible cancellation of the decision in the Roe v. Wade case.
“A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Thomson and Abortion Discussion “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Thomson tries to bridge the gap between supporters of abortion, and opponents, who believe that a fetus is a person.
Ethics: Women’s Right to Abortion In the current paradigm of medicine and healthcare, abortion has become a relatively safe operation due to the increased quality of competencies and equipment.
“Abortion Law and Policy Around the World”: Source Evaluation The paper analyzes article “Abortion law and policy around the world” which was written by Marge Berer and published in June, 2017.
Abortion: The Lifesaving Procedure Even though abortion is a form of right to life deprivation, the act is not a crime, as some believe hence should be legalized. It can potentially be a lifesaving procedure.
Why Should Abortion Be Made Legal? The paper states that doing an abortion before 20 weeks is permissible and has to be an option for women willing to stop their pregnancy.
Abortion: Effects and Legalization The social stigma surrounding abortion has a negative impact on people’s mental health and their willingness to seek safe abortion services despite the legal laws.
The Right to Abortion Must Be Protected Legal abortion means respecting women’s reproductive freedom, ensuring that all children grow up wanted in safe environments, and improving the general conditions of society.
Abortion Legalization and List of Circumstances In some cases where the expectant mother cannot handle a child, abortion in such a scenario needs legalization.
Discussion: Legalization of Abortion Aspects The paper argues abortion needs legalization under exceptional grounds, such as when a mother’s life is at risk.
Abortion Issues and Safe Practices Fathalla’s Safe abortion discusses solutions to preventing unsafe abortions, including sexual education, increased access to contraceptives, provision of safe abortions, etc.
The Abortion Issue Regarding Human Rights This article raises the question of how people should determine what rights should be guaranteed by the constitution and what rights are core rights from birth.
The Controversy Over Abortion Rights The paper states that the confrontation between the two movements over the years has led to the fact that abortion has become a controversial topic.
The Future of Abortions in the United States This paper examines the different ways United States legislators have used their power to politicize abortion and argues about the future of abortion rights.
The Morality of the Abortion Case Abortion is perceived as a morally incorrect action. This paper investigates the morality of the case and which action is supposed to be right or wrong.
The Issues Surrounding Abortion This paper aims to find solutions to the issues surrounding abortion and to justify why the proposals need to be considered when implementing abortion laws.
Abortion: Comparison and Contrast of Arguments Abortion has been a controversial issue for many decades, with both sides of the argument often feeling very strongly about it.
Disagreeing With Abortion Encouragement This essay argues that abortions should not be publicly encouraged as it represents a serious decision for women that should be undertaken without pressure.
Abortion: The Indispensable Woman’s Right A woman’s freedom to safe, legal abortion is an integral part of her right to privacy and physical and psychological health.
Women’s Mental Health after Receiving or Being Denied an Abortion: Summary The results infer women who were refused abortion experienced higher levels of anxiety, lower levels of contentment, and a similar level of depression as those who had an abortion.
President’s Power to Affect National Policy: The Case of Abortion Probably, none of the important and controversial policies can be implemented without the participation of the country’s chief executive.
Affordable Abortions as a Reproductive Right of Women This paper examines the issue of abortion affordability as a public health and human right concern from legal and judicial perspectives.
Women’s Bodies, Women’s Rights: A Case for Abortion If one holds that a woman has the moral right to make decisions about her health and existence, the only reasonable conclusion is to acknowledge the right to abortion.
Abortion Safety as Topic of Sociological Studies Sociological studies show that about half of all abortions are unsafe, while every third abortion is performed in dangerous circumstances.
Abortion and Its Permissibility Issue Abortion during pregnancy is one of the discussed topics in the modern world, which sometimes becomes more acute in connection with certain incidents.
Christianity Views on Abortion Concepts, the Big Bang, and the Evolution Theory The Bible and other Christian articles provide information related to contemporary society, views on abortion concepts, the big bang, and the evolution theory.
Debates: Abortions Must Be Legal Access to safe and effective abortions is not only a universal human right but also an indicator of social development concerning women.
A Controversial Topic of Abortion Abortion has been a controversial topic globally for many decades. The side of the argument an individual chooses to support depends on many factors.
Ethical Issues and Concerns Regarding Abortion The paper is addressing contemporary ethical issues and concerns regarding abortion. The debate over this subject involves ethical arguments.
Abortion Dilemma in Pragmatic Ethics The moral acceptability of abortions has always been a disputable issue. From the perspective of pragmatic ethics, the decision to make an abortion can be acceptable and moral.
Way Forward for Improving Abortion Healthcare The healthcare field should ensure the safety of those who want to terminate the pregnancy, the first step towards changing the situation is training enough personnel.
Moral Arguments Regarding Abortion The paper describes that abortion laws within the US vary dramatically between states, and to understand the reason for this disparity, it is critical to list the moral arguments.
“No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion” Act and the Judeo-Christian Worldview The purpose of this paper is to analyze the H.R. 7 “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion” act within the framework of the Judeo-Christian worldview and ethics.
Ethical, Medical, and Legal Aspects of Abortion Abortion is a medical procedure aimed at termination of pregnancy “before the fetus is able to live independently in the extrauterine environment”.
Abortions’ Negative Impacts on Modern Society Abortion is an immoral act or rather a crime that has diverse negative implications for individuals and the entire society.
The Moral Status of a Fetus and the Acceptability of Abortion The case study involves four individuals presenting their views on the moral status of a fetus and the acceptability of abortion.
Decriminalizing Abortion in Victoria, Australia The issue of abortion had been rampant in Australia, particularly in Victoria, to the point that it was considered a crime until 2007 when the government decriminalized it.
Abortions. Perspectives, Federalism, Court Cases Abortion has been one of the most provocative topics across the globe. People have different views on whether a woman should be permitted to abort her child or not.
The Problem of Alabama’s Latest Abortion Bill The problem revolves around Alabama’s latest abortion bill, which punishes abortion, providing doctors with lifetime sentencing.
The Controversial Issue of Abortion Legal and ethical issues associated with abortion are becoming controversial every day in modern society; some people support the idea of abortion, while others disagree.
Policy Debate: Argument in Support of Abortion Abortion is a critical issue in the support of women’s rights because usually women are more affected by the debate than men (both as a gender and individuals).
The Effects of Abortions on the Black Community The paper states that it cannot be confidently stated that the ‘trend’ on abortion among the black community is the result of political conspiracy.
Why Abortion Should Be Included in the National Healthcare Plan The abortion debate is one of the most controversial and irrational issues that have lacked a concrete solution for a very long time in America.
Abortions: Is It a Legalized Murder? The views about abortion are often based on the cultural and ethical values of people and on how an individual perceives the status of the fetus.
Ethics of Smoke-Free Legislation and Abortion Laws There are laws that are clear for the population and their importance is undeniable. A bright example is smoke-free legislation, which is crucial for the health of non-smokers.
Providing the Argument Against Abortion The paper questions the argument against abortion that is associated with the fact that every aborted child may become a great composer, an artist, or some other prominent person.
Fetus Abnormality and Morality of Abortion There are various theories that have been used to determine the fetus’s moral status. Each of them has a significant impact on the choices taken by people.
An Exploration of the Abortion Debate
Abortions: Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life
Mandating Ultrasound Prior to Having an Abortion
“Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions” by Finer
Abortion Should Be Encouraged in the United States
Should Abortions Be Legal? Arguments For and Against
The Abortion Debate: The Conservative and Liberal Arguments Against
Abortion and Catholic Church’s Attitude
Abortion Topic in “A Defense of Abortion” by Thomson
The Abortion Dilemma: Islam vs. Christianity
Judith Jarvis Thomson’s Views on Abortion
Abortion: The Issue of Legalization and Ethical Considerations
‘A Defense of Abortion’ by Judith Jarvis Thomson: Major Arguments for Abortion
Abortion Issues: Credible and Non-Credible Sources of Information
The Legalized of Abortion in the United States
Summary of the Research Article About Abortion
The Decision to Seek Abortions
Pro-choice vs. Pro-life: The Question of Abortion
Abortion as the Fundamental Right of Women
Women Have the Right to Decide the Abortion
The Issue of Abortion Eligibility
Overview of the Abortion as a Legal Issue
The Ethics of Abortion and Reproductive Rights
The Controversy About Abortion Prohibition and Women’s Rights
Abortions Through the Prism of Christianity
Women Have the Right to Decide Whether to Have an Abortion
Legality of Abortion in the USA: Discussion
Abortion: Negative Impacts on Women
Pro-Abortion Ethics Case and Argument
The Abortion Law in Ireland and Canada
The Issue Of Abortion in the United States: Arguments For and Against
Abortion: Arguments for and Against
Abortion as a Legal Women’s Right
The Problem of Abortion
Abortion: G. Marino’s Controversial Points of View
Abortion and Moral Status of Fetus with Abnormality
Abortion and Moral Theory
Debate on Abortion Insurance in South Dakota
Health Insurance Abortion Ban in South Dakota
Abortion Policy in the United States
Abortion in the US: Human Behavior and Social Environment
Abortions in Australia Discussed in Media
Abortion as a Woman’s Choice and Right
Abortion: Legal, Medical, Moral, Religious Issues
Abortion from Legal and Public Health Perspectives
Abortion in Feminist and Care Ethics
Abortion and Maternal Health: the Global Health Crisis
Ethics in Practice: Abortion Choice
President Obama’s Fallacy in Abortion Arguments
Abortion in Texas as a Political Issue
Ethics of Abortion and Over-the-Counter Drugs
Abortion Clinic Access Policy and Women’s Health
Abortion in Case of Down Disease in Fetus
Abortion as a Moral Controversy in the US
Abortions and Rights of a Fetus in the US
Florida Abortion Policies and Health Insurance
Policy Analysis: Abortion Clinic Access
“A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thomson
Abortion: Reasons and Issues
Abortion as a Public Issue: The New York Times Views
Anti-Abortion Advocacy of Pro-Life Movement
Canadian Abortion Laws and Women’s Rights
Abortion: Judith Thomson’s Ethical Perspective
Fetal Abnormality and Abortion: Ideal and Discretionary Theories
The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights
Abortion: Legal, Ethical and Professional Evidence
Moral Argument in Support of Abortion
Should Abortion be Legal or Illegal?
Abortion as a Controversy
Possible Effects After Abortion
Abortion’s Physical and Psychological Effects
What Does the Bible Say About Abortion?
What Kind of Connection Exist Between Abortion and Mental Health?
Does Abortion Relieve Overpopulation?
Why Many Christians Oppose Abortion
What Similar Features Are Seen Between Abortion and Slavery?
Does Male Age Have an Influence on the Risk of Spontaneous Abortion?
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Abortion?
Why Abortion Should Remain Legal?
What Are the Reasons for the Choice of Abortion in American Women?
What Are the Pros and Cons of Abortion, Prostitution and Gun Control?
What Are Opposition and Conflicting Feelings on Abortion?
Does Rape Justify Abortion?
What Are the Ethical Issues Raised With Abortion?
Who Should Decide the Legality of Abortion?
Does Abortion Have Severe Psychological Effects?
Why Abortion Attitudes Will Always Be Controversial?
Does Abortion Affect Subsequent Pregnancy?
Why the Abortion Controversy Is Often So Bitter Essay
Why the Government Should Ban Abortion Essay
Why Has Abortion Become Such a Political Issue? Who Should Have the Final Say?
Why Doctors Should Not Perform Induced Abortion?
What Are the Religious Arguments Concerning Contraception and Abortion?
What Social, Moral and Ethical Dilemma Causes Abortion?
Why Abortion Laws Should Be Changed for Teens?
Does abortion promote gender equality?
Should parental consent be required for minors seeking an abortion?
Is a fetus’s right to life more important than a woman’s right to choose?
Is abortion acceptable in case of rape or incest?
Should waiting periods and pre-abortion counseling be mandatory?
Abortion: a relief or a toll on a woman’s physical and mental health?
Is abortion justified in case of failed contraception?
Should medical professionals be allowed to refuse to perform abortions?
Should medically unnecessary abortions be criminalized?
Abortion: a personal choice or a social matter?
How do religious beliefs affect opinions about the legality of abortions?
How do restrictive abortion laws influence women’s access to safe healthcare?
What is the role of informed consent in abortion?
How do socioeconomic disparities affect women’s decisions regarding abortion?
What is the impact of sex education programs on the demand for abortions?
What do women experience before, during, and after abortion?
How does the media shape public attitudes toward abortion?
How do societal attitudes toward abortion differ across the world?
How did abortion laws evolve over time?
Do the psychological effects of abortion differ from one woman to another?
How do cultural perceptions of motherhood affect women’s abortion decisions?
How does abortion accessibility influence the rates of self-induced and unsafe abortions?
What is the role of grassroots movements in shaping abortion policies?
What are the long-term health consequences of multiple abortions?
How do technological advancements shape how the public perceives the fetus?
How do mandatory waiting periods affect women’s mental well-being?
Does telemedicine improve rural women’s access to safe abortion?
What is the emotional impact of mandatory pre-abortion ultrasounds on women?
How does the availability of abortion affect women’s economic stability?
How do personal narratives help reduce the stigma surrounding abortion?

Cite this post

Chicago (N-B)
Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2021, September 9). 241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/

"241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples." StudyCorgi , 9 Sept. 2021, studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . (2021) '241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples'. 9 September.

1. StudyCorgi . "241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . 2021. "241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/.

These essay examples and topics on Abortion were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 5, 2024 .

What can economic research tell us about the effect of abortion access on women’s lives?

Subscribe to the center for economic security and opportunity newsletter, caitlin knowles myers and caitlin knowles myers john g. mccullough professor of economics; co-director, middlebury initiative for data and digital methods - middlebury college @caitlin_k_myers morgan welch morgan welch senior research assistant & project coordinator - center on children and families, economic studies, brookings institution.

November 30, 2021

21 min read

On September 20, 2021, a group of 154 distinguished economists and researchers filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in advance of the Mississippi case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization . For a full review of the evidence that shows how causal inference tools have been used to measure the effects of abortion access in the U.S., read the brief here .

Introduction

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization considers the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi law that prohibits women from accessing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This case is widely expected to determine the fate of Roe v. Wade as Mississippi is directly challenging the precedent set by the Supreme Court’s decisions in Roe , which protects abortion access before fetal viability (typically between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy). On December 1, 2021, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson . In asking the Court to overturn Roe , the state of Mississippi offers reassurances that “there is simply no causal link between the availability of abortion and the capacity of women to act in society” 1 and hence no reason to believe that abortion access has shaped “the ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation” 2 as the Court had previously held.

While the debate over abortion often centers on largely intractable subjective questions of ethics and morality, in this instance the Court is being asked to consider an objective question about the causal effects of abortion access on the lives of women and their families. The field of economics affords insights into these objective questions through the application of sophisticated methodological approaches that can be used to isolate and measure the causal effects of abortion access on reproductive, social, and economic outcomes for women and their families.

Separating Correlation from Causation: The “Credibility Revolution” in Economics

To measure the causal effect of abortion on women’s lives, one must differentiate its effects from those of other forces, such as economic opportunity, social mores, the availability of contraception. Powerful statistical methodologies in the causal inference toolbox have made it possible for economists to do just that, moving beyond the maxim “correlation isn’t necessarily causation” and applying the scientific method to figure out when it is.

This year’s decision by the Economic Sciences Prize Committee recognized the contributions 3 of economists David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens, awarding them the Nobel Prize for their pathbreaking work developing and applying the tools of causal inference in a movement dubbed “the credibility revolution” (Angrist and Pischke, 2010). The gold standard for establishing such credibility is a well-executed randomized controlled trial – an experiment conducted in the lab or field in which treatment is randomly assigned. When economists can feasibly and ethically implement such experiments, they do. However, in the social world, this opportunity is often not available. For instance, one cannot feasibly or ethically randomly assign abortion access to some individuals but not others. Faced with this obstacle, economists turn to “natural” or “quasi” experimental methods, ones in which they are able to credibly argue that treatment is as good as randomly assigned.

The Effects of Abortion Access on Women’s Reproductive, Economic, and Social Lives

Evidence of the effects of abortion legalization.

The history of abortion legalization in the United States affords both a canonical and salient example of a natural experiment. While Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in most of the country in 1973, five states—Alaska, California, Hawaii, New York, and Washington—and the District of Columbia repealed their abortion bans several years in advance of Roe . Using a methodology known as “difference-in-difference estimation,” researchers compared changes in outcomes in these “repeal states” when they lifted abortion bans to changes in outcomes in the rest of the country. They also compared changes in outcomes in the rest of the country in 1973 when Roe legalized abortion to changes in outcomes in the repeal states where abortion already was legal. This difference-in-differences methodology allows the states where abortion access is not changing to serve as a counterfactual or “control” group that accounts for other forces that were impacting fertility and women’s lives in the Roe era.

Among the first to employ this approach was a team of economists (Levine, Staiger, Kane, and Zimmerman, 1999) who estimated that the legalization of abortion in repeal states led to a 4% to 11% decline in births in those states relative to the rest of the country. Levine and his co-authors found that these fertility effects were particularly large for teens and women of color, who experienced birth rate reductions that were nearly three times greater than the overall population as a result of abortion legalization. Multiple research teams have replicated the essential finding that abortion legalization substantially impacted American fertility while extending the analysis to consider other outcomes. 4 For example, Myers (2017) found that abortion legalization reduced the number of women who became teen mothers by 34% and the number who became teen brides by 20%, and again observed effects that were even larger for Black teens. Farin, Hoehn-Velasco, and Pesko (2021) found that abortion legalization reduced maternal mortality among Black women by 30-40%, with little impact on white women, offering the explanation that where abortion was illegal, Black women were less likely to be able to access safe abortions by traveling to other states or countries or by obtaining a clandestine abortion from a trusted health care provider.

The ripple effects of abortion access on the lives of women and their families

This research, which clearly demonstrates the causal relationship between abortion access and first-order demographic and health outcomes, laid the foundation for researchers to measure further ripple effects through the lives of women and their families. Multiple teams of authors have extended the difference-in-differences research designs to study educational and labor market outcomes, finding that abortion legalization increased women’s education, labor force participation, occupational prestige, and earnings and that all these effects were particularly large for Black women (Angrist and Evans, 1996; Kalist, 2004; Lindo, Pineda-Torres, Pritchard, and Tajali, 2020; Jones, 2021).

Additionally, research shows that abortion access has not only had profound effects on women’s economic and social lives but has also impacted the circumstances into which children are born. Researchers using difference-in-differences research designs have found that abortion legalization reduced the number of children who were unwanted (Bitler and Zavodny, 2002a, reduced cases of child neglect and abuse (Bitler and Zavodny, 2002b; 2004), reduced the number of children who lived in poverty (Gruber, Levine, and Staiger, 1999), and improved long-run outcomes of an entire generation of children by increasing the likelihood of attending college and reducing the likelihood of living in poverty and receiving public assistance (Ananat, Gruber, Levine, and Staiger, 2009).

Access to abortion continues to be important to women’s lives

The research cited above relies on variation in abortion access from the 1970s, and much has changed in terms of both reproductive technologies and women’s lives. Recent research shows, however, that even with the social, economic, and legal shifts that have occurred over the last few decades and even with expanded access to contraception, abortion access remains relevant to women’s reproductive lives. Today, nearly half of pregnancies are unintended (Finer and Zolna, 2016). About 6% of young women (ages 15-34) experience an unintended pregnancy each year (Finer, Lindberg, and Desai, 2018), and about 1.4% of women of childbearing age obtain an abortion each year (Jones, Witwer, and Jerman, 2019). At these rates, approximately one in four women will receive an abortion in their reproductive lifetimes. The fact is clear: women continue to rely on abortion access to determine their reproductive lives.

But what about their economic and social lives? While women have made great progress in terms of their educational attainment, career trajectories, and role in society, mothers face a variety of challenges and penalties that are not adequately addressed by public policy. Following the birth of a child, it’s well documented that working mothers face a “motherhood wage penalty,” which entails lower wages than women who did not have a child (Waldfogel, 1998; Anderson, Binder, and Krause, 2002; Kelven et al., 2019). Maternity leave may combat this penalty as it allows women to return to their jobs following the birth of a child – encouraging them to remain attached to the labor force (Rossin-Slater, 2017). However, as of this writing, the U.S. only offers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave through the FMLA, which extends coverage to less than 60% of all workers. 5 And even if a mother is able to return to work, childcare in the U.S. is costly and often inaccessible for many. Families with infants can be expected to pay around $11,000 a year for childcare and subsidies are only available for 1 in 6 children that are eligible under the federal program. 6 Without a federal paid leave policy and access to affordable childcare, the U.S. lacks the infrastructure to adequately support mothers, and especially working mothers – making the prospect of motherhood financially unworkable for some.

This is relevant when considering that the women who seek abortions tend to be low-income mothers experiencing disruptive life events. In the most recent survey of abortion patients conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, 97% are adults, 49% are living below the poverty line, 59% already have children, and 55% are experiencing a disruptive life event such as losing a job, breaking up with a partner, or falling behind on rent (Jones and Jerman, 2017a and 2017b). It is not a stretch to imagine that access to abortion could be pivotal to these women’s financial lives, and recent evidence from “The Turnaway Study” 7 provides empirical support for this supposition. In this study, an interdisciplinary team of researchers follows two groups of women who were typically seeking abortions in the second trimester: one group that arrived at abortion clinics and learned they were just over the gestational age threshold for abortions and were “turned away” and a second that was just under the threshold and were provided an abortion. Miller, Wherry, and Foster (2020) match individuals in both groups to their Experian credit reports and observe that in the months leading up to the moment they sought an abortion, financial outcomes for both groups were trending similarly. At the moment one group is turned away from a wanted abortion, however, they began to experience substantial financial distress, exhibiting a 78% increase in past-due debt and an 81% increase in public records related to bankruptcies, evictions, and court judgments.

If Roe were overturned, the number of women experiencing substantial obstacles to obtaining an abortion would dramatically increase.

If Roe were overturned, the number of women experiencing substantial obstacles to obtaining an abortion would dramatically increase. Twelve states have enacted “trigger bans” designed to outlaw abortion in the immediate aftermath of a Roe reversal, while an additional 10 are considered highly likely to quickly enact new bans. 8 These bans would shutter abortion facilities across a wide swath of the American south and midwest, dramatically increasing travel distances and the logistical costs of obtaining an abortion. Economics research predicts what is likely to happen next. Multiple teams of economists have exploited natural experiments arising from mandatory waiting periods (Joyce and Kaestner, 2001; Lindo and Pineda-Torres, 2021; Myers, 2021) and provider closures (Quast, Gonzalez, and Ziemba, 2017; Fischer, Royer, and White, 2018; Lindo, Myers, Schlosser, and Cunningham, 2020; Venator and Fletcher, 2021; Myers, 2021). All have found that increases in travel distances prevent large numbers of women seeking abortions from reaching a provider and that most of these women give birth as a result. For instance, Lindo and co-authors (2020) exploit a natural experiment arising from the sudden closure of half of Texas’s abortion clinics in 2013 and find that an increase in travel distance from 0 to 100 miles results in a 25.8% decrease in abortions. Myers, Jones, and Upadhyay (2019) use these results to envision a post- Roe United States, forecasting that if Roe is overturned and the expected states begin to ban abortions, approximately 1/3 of women living in affected regions would be unable to reach an abortion provider, amounting to roughly 100,000 women in the first year alone.

Restricting, or outright eliminating, abortion access by overturning Roe v. Wade would diminish women’s personal and economic lives, as well as the lives of their families.

Whether one’s stance on abortion access is driven by deeply held views on women’s bodily autonomy or when life begins, the decades of research using rigorous methods is clear: there is a causal link between access to abortion and whether, when, and under what circumstances women become mothers, with ripple effects throughout their lives. Access affects their education, earnings, careers, and the subsequent life outcomes for their children. In the state’s argument, Mississippi rejects the causal link between access to abortion and societal outcomes established by economists and states that the availability of abortion isn’t relevant to women’s full participation in society. Economists provide clear evidence that overturning Roe would prevent large numbers of women experiencing unintended pregnancies—many of whom are low-income and financially vulnerable mothers—from obtaining desired abortions. Restricting, or outright eliminating, that access by overturning Roe v. Wade would diminish women’s personal and economic lives, as well as the lives of their families.

Caitlin Knowles Myers did not receive financial support from any firm or person for this article. She has received financial compensation from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Center for Reproductive Rights for serving as an expert witness in litigation involving abortion regulations. She has not and will not receive financial compensation for her role in the amicus brief described here. Other than the aforementioned, she has not received financial support from any firm or person with a financial or political interest in this article. Caitlin Knowles Myers is not currently an officer, director, or board member of any organization with a financial or political interest in this article.

Abboud, Ali, 2019. “The Impact of Early Fertility Shocks on Women’s Fertility and Labor Market Outcomes.” Available from SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3512913

Anderson, Deborah J., Binder, Melissa, and Kate Krause, 2002. “The motherhood wage penalty: Which mothers pay it and why?” The American Economic Review 92(2). Retrieved from https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/000282802320191606

Ananat, Elizabeth Oltmans, Gruber, Jonathan, Levine, Phillip and Douglas Staiger, 2009. “Abortion and Selection.” The Review of Economic Statistics 91(1). Retrieved from https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/91/1/124/57736/Abortion-and-Selection?redirectedFrom=fulltext .

Angrist, Joshua D., and Alan B. Krueger, 1999. “Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings?” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 106(4). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2307/2937954 .

Angrist, Joshua D., and William N. Evans, 1996. “Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of the 1970 State Abortion Reforms.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 5406. Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/papers/w5406 .

Angrist, Joshua D., and Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. “The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 24(2). Retrieved from https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.24.2.3

Bailey, Martha J., Hoynes, Hilary W., Rossin-Slater, Maya and Reed Walker, 2020. “Is the Social Safety Net a Long-Term Investment? Large-Scale Evidence from the Food Stamps Program” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 26942 , Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/papers/w26942

Bitler, Marianne, and Madeline Zavodny, 2002a. “Did Abortion Legalization Reduce the Number of Unwanted Children? Evidence from Adoptions.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 34 (1): 25-33. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3030229?origin=JSTOR-pdf

Bitler, Marianne, and Madeline Zavodny, 2002b. “Child Abuse and Abortion Availability.” American Economic Review , 92 (2): 363-367. Retrieved from https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/000282802320191624

Bitler, Marianne, and Madeline Zavodny, 2004. “Child Maltreatment, Abortion Availability, and Economic Conditions.” Review of Economics of the Household 2: 119-141. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1023/B:REHO.0000031610.36468.0e

Farin, Sherajum Monira, Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren, and Michael Pesko, 2021. “The Impact of Legal Abortion on Maternal Health: Looking to the Past to Inform the Present.” Retrieved from SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3913899

Finer, Lawrence B., and Mia R. Zolna, 2016. “Declines in Unintended Pregnancy in the United States, 2008–2011” New England Journal of Medicine 374. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26962904/

Finer, Lawrence B., Lindberg, Laura, D., and Sheila Desai. “A prospective measure of unintended pregnancy in the United States.” Contraception 98(6). Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29879398/

Fischer, Stefanie, Royer, Heather, and Corey White, 2017. “The Impacts of Reduced Access to Abortion and Family Planning Services on Abortion, Births, and Contraceptive Purchases.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 23634 . Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/papers/w23634

Gruber, Jonathan, Levine, Phillip, and Douglas Staiger, 1999. “Abortion Legalization and Child Living Circumstances: Who Is the ‘Marginal Child’?” Quarterly Journal of Economics 114. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399556007

Guldi, Melanie, 2008. “Fertility effects of abortion and birth control pill access for minors.” Demography 45 . Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.0.0026

Hoynes, Hilary, Schanzenbach, Diane Whitmore, and Douglas Almond, 2016. “Long-Run Impacts of Childhood Access to the Safety Net.” American Economic Review 106(4). Retrieved from https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20130375

Jones, Kelly, 2021. “At a Crossroads: The Impact of Abortion Access on Future Economic Outcomes.” American University Working Paper . Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.17606/0Q51-0R11 .

Jones, Rachel K., Witwer, Elizabeth, Jerman, Jenna, September 18, 2018. “Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2017.” Guttmacher Institute. Retrieved from https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/ default/files/report_pdf/abortion-inciden ce-service-availability-us-2017.

Jones Rachel K., and Janna Jerman, 2017a. ”Population group abortion rates and lifetime incidence of abortion: United States, 2008–2014.” American Journal of Public Health 107 (12). Retrieved from https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2017.304042

Jones, Rachel K. and Jenna Jerman, 2017b. “Characteristics and Circumstances of U.S. Women Who Obtain Very Early and Second-Trimester Abortions.” PLoS One . Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28121999/

Joyce, Ted, and Robert Kaestner, 2001. “The Impact of Mandatory Waiting Periods and Parental Consent Laws on the Timing of Abortion and State of Occurrence among Adolescents in Mississippi and South Carolina.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 20(2) . Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3325799 .

Kalist, David E., 2004. “Abortion and Female Labor Force Participation: Evidence Prior to Roe v. Wade.” Journal of Labor Research 25 (3) .

Keiser, David, and Joseph Shapiro, 2019. “Consequences of the Clean Water Act and the Demand for Water Quality.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 134 (1).

Kleven, Henrik, Landais, Camille, Posch, Johanna, Steinhauer, Andreas, and Josef Zweimuleler, 2019. “Child Penalties Across Countries: Evidence and Explanations.” AEA Papers and Proceedings 109. Retrieved from https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20191078/

Levine, Phillip, Staiger, Douglas, Kane, Thomas, and David Zimmerman, 1999. “Roe v. Wade and American Fertility.” American Journal Of Public Health 89(2) . Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1508542/

Lindo, Jason M., Myers, Caitlin Knowles, Schlosser, Andrea, and Scott Cunningham, 2020. “How Far Is Too Far? New Evidence on Abortion Clinic Closures, Access, and Abortions” Journal of Human Resources 55. Retrieved from http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/55/4/1137.refs

Lindo, Jason M., Pineda-Torres, Mayra, Pritchard, David, and Hedieh Tajali, 2020. “Legal Access to Reproductive Control Technology, Women’s Education, and Earnings Approaching Retirement.” AEA Papers and Proceedings 110. Retrieved from https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20201108

Lindo, Jason M., and Mayra Pineda-Torres, 2021. “New Evidence on the Effects of Mandatory Waiting Periods for Abortion.” J ournal of Health Econ omics. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34607119/

Miguel, Edward, Satyanath, Shanker, and Ernest Sergenti, 2004. “Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: An Instrumental Variables Approach.” Journal of Political Economy 112(4). Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/421174

Miller, Sarah, Wherry, Laura R., and Diana Greene Foster, 2020. “The Economic Consequences of Being Denied an Abortion.” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 26662 . Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/papers/w26662 .

Myers, Caitlin Knowles, 2017. “The Power of Abortion Policy: Reexamining the Effects of Young Women’s Access to Reproductive Control” Journal of Political Economy 125(6) . Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1086/694293 .

Myers, Caitlin Knowles, Jones, Rachel, and Ushma Upadhyay, 2019. “Predicted changes in abortion access and incidence in a post-Roe world.” Contraception 100(5). Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31376381/

Myers, Caitlin Knowles, 2021. “Cooling off or Burdened? The Effects of Mandatory Waiting Periods on Abortions and Births.” IZA Institute of Labor Economics No. 14434. Retrieved from https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/14434/cooling-off-or-burdened-the-effects-of-mandatory-waiting-periods-on-abortions-and-births

Quast, Troy, Gonzalez, Fidel, and Robert Ziemba, 2017. “Abortion Facility Closings and Abortion Rates in Texas.” Inquiry: A Journal of Medical Care Organization, Provision and Financing 54 . Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0046958017700944

Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2017. “Maternity and Family Leave Policy.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 23069. Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/papers/w23069

Venator, Joanna, and Jason Fletcher, 2020. “Undue Burden Beyond Texas: An Analysis of Abortion Clinic Closures, Births, and Abortions in Wisconsin.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 40(3). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22263

Waldfogel, Jane, 1998. “The family gap for young women in the United States and Britain: Can maternity leave make a difference?” Journal of Labor Economics 16(3).

Thomas E. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Brief in Support of Petitioners, No. 19-1392.
Thomas E. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Brief for Petitioners, No. 19-139, Retrieved from https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-1392/184703/20210722161332385_19-1392BriefForPetitioners.pdf
The Nobel Prize. 2021. “Press release: The Prize in Economic Sciences 202.” Retrieved from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2021/press-release/
See Angrist and Evans (1996), Gruber et al. (1999), Ananat et al. (2009), Guldi (2008), Myers (2017), Abboud (2019), Jones (2021).
Brown, Scott, Herr, Jane, Roy, Radha , and Jacob Alex Klerman, July 2020. “Employee and Worksite Perspectives of the FMLA Who Is Eligible?” U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OASP/evaluation/pdf/WHD_FMLA2018PB1WhoIsEligible_StudyBrief_Aug2020.pdf
Whitehurst, Grover J., April 19, 2018. “What is the market price of daycare and preschool?” Brookings Institution. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-is-the-market-price-of-daycare-and-preschool/; Chien, Nina, 2021. “Factsheet: Estimates of Child Care Eligibility & Receipt for Fiscal Year 2018.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/20 21-08/cy-2018-child-care-subsidy-eligibility.pdf
Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (NSIRH). “The Turnaway Study.” Retrieved from https://www.ansirh.org/research/ongoing/turnaway-study.
Center for Reproductive Rights, 2021. “What If Roe Fell?” Retrieved from https://maps.reproductiverights.org/what-if-roe-fell

Economic Studies

Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Vanessa Williamson

May 14, 2024

Simon Hodson

May 8, 2024

The Brookings Institution, Washington D.C.

10:00 am - 11:15 am EDT

PERSPECTIVE article

Renewed calls for abortion-related research in the post-roe era.

1 Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
3 Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
4 Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
5 Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
6 School of Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States

Nearly 50 years after Roe versus Wade, the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs versus Jackson Women’s Health Organization unraveled the constitutional right to abortion, allowing individual states to severely restrict or ban the procedure. In response, leading medical, public health, and community organizations have renewed calls for research to elucidate and address the burgeoning social and medical consequences of new abortion restrictions. Abortion research not only includes studies that establish the safety, quality, and efficacy of evidence-based abortion care protocols, but also encompasses studies on the availability of abortion care, the consequences of being denied an abortion, and the legal and social burdens surrounding abortion. The urgency of these calls for new evidence underscores the importance of ensuring that research in this area is conducted in an ethical and respectful manner, cognizant of the social, political, and structural conditions that shape reproductive health inequities and impact each stage of research—from protocol design to dissemination of findings. Research ethics relates to the moral principles undergirding the design and execution of research projects, and concerns itself with the technicalities of ethical questions related to the research process, such as informed consent, power relations, and confidentiality. Critical insights and reflections from reproductive justice, community engagement, and applied ethics frameworks have bolstered existing research ethics scholarship and discourse by underscoring the importance of meaningful engagement with community stakeholders—bringing attention to overlapping structures of oppression, including racism, sexism, and ways that these structures are perpetuated in the research process.

Research ethics relates to the moral principles undergirding the design and execution of research projects, and concerns itself with the technicalities of ethical questions related to the research process, such as informed consent, power relations, and confidentiality ( 8 ). Critical insights and reflections from reproductive justice, community engagement, and applied ethics frameworks have bolstered existing research ethics scholarship and discourse by underscoring the importance of meaningful engagement with community stakeholders—bringing attention to overlapping structures of oppression, including racism, sexism, and ways that these structures are perpetuated in the research process ( 9 – 19 ).

Scholars have critiqued traditional research ethics models for being too narrowly focused on investigator expertise and conventional measures of scientific validity. While helpful in some scenarios, this narrow focus can obscure the needs of minoritized communities with structural vulnerabilities and silence their voices across the research continuum. In essence, research can only be ethical when it prioritizes equity, justice, and respect for groups burdened with the potential to be most harmed during the research process.

Considering the heightened challenges posed by the post- Roe era, the commentary that follows is a call for researchers, research institutions, funding agencies, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and other regulatory bodies to safeguard against potential research-related harms by ( 1 ) prioritizing the needs, concerns, and preferences of populations burdened by social and structural vulnerabilities ( 20 ) promoting reproductive justice-oriented, community-engaged scholarship, and ( 21 ) providing evidence-based training and robust support for researchers. Given the history of medical exploitation and reproductive violence in communities with structural vulnerabilities, ethical and respectful research in the post- Roe environment requires prioritizing the voices of the most marginalized to mitigate iatrogenic research harms and promote reproductive health equity ( 20 ).

The social, ethical, and legal complexities of abortion-related research

Early research on abortion focused on instances in which pregnancy terminations went horribly awry. Physicians published case reports detailing the management of septic, radically ill patients who risked their lives procuring illegal abortions ( 22 ). As some states liberalized their abortion laws, other researchers focused their work on the public health impacts of safe and legal abortions enabled by better policies, techniques, and antibiotics ( 23 , 24 ). Their combined efforts eventually pushed professional medical and public health organizations to support abortion rights through advocacy and amicus curiae briefs filed in the United States Supreme Court cases Roe and Casey.

Legalized abortion opened new research avenues and sparked ethical debates regarding the social and legal complexities of biomedical research during pregnancy. Notably, concerns about the outcome of Roe and pressure from anti-abortion groups shaped the first federal “protections” governing research on pregnant patients—regulations first established in the 1970s that excluded pregnant women from clinical trials and created gaps in knowledge about prescription drug use during pregnancy and the postpartum period ( 25 , 26 ). In recent years, leading research and federal organizations have discussed the need to address these knowledge gaps and have called for a range of studies on reproductive and maternal health needs with an increased emphasis on the social, behavioral, biological, and environmental forces that shape health outcomes at the individual, local, state, and national levels ( 13 , 14 ). In response to these calls, equity-focused scholars have conducted a range of important studies that prioritize community perspectives and values ( 27 – 30 ).

Research on maternal and reproductive health requires considerable sensitivity, as it often involves meeting people in especially vulnerable moments. For example, studies on stillbirth may require clinicians to approach grieving parents after a pregnancy loss to obtain consent for fetal tissue sampling. Research on maternal morbidity and mortality often necessitates conversations with women after near-death experiences or with families who have lost loved ones in cases of maternal death ( 31 – 34 ). Abortion research similarly involves these weighty social and emotional considerations, in addition to heightened ethical and legal concerns about stigma, confidentiality, trauma, and criminalization. In environments where abortion is criminalized and stigmatized, contemporary research ethics guidelines call for population-sensitive research practices to protect participants and communities that may face threats of persecution or harm ( 35 ). Thus, examining how intersectional structures of oppression, stigma, and vulnerability influence abortion research is critical for advancing and informing research ethics practices and protocols in the context of reproductive and maternal health.

Intersecting structures of oppression and research “vulnerability”

Research ethics guidelines predicated on the assumption of participant autonomy obscure how structural issues threaten reproductive autonomy, perpetuate trauma and stigmatization, and give rise to significant moral distress in groups already burdened by poverty, stigma, and inequitable access to healthcare. Respectful and compassionate research requires an understanding ways in which intersecting, multidimensional structures of oppression shape participant-level vulnerability in research settings. Even in instances where research participants have given informed consent and assumed the individual risks associated with research involving sensitive information, researchers in the post- Roe environment have a moral and professional responsibility to grapple with the systems and structures that sharpen participant vulnerability and research risks.

When individuals occupy multiple marginalized identities, they may be rendered more vulnerable in settings where social and structural forces collide to limit their agency, visibility, and voice ( 36 ). However, the traditional approach to categorical research protections outlined in the Belmont Report classifies certain groups as vulnerable based on singularly defined identities, namely, incarcerated individuals, children, and people with disabilities. Recent scholarship has expanded the concept of vulnerability to include the intersectional experiences of communities burdened by excessive research risks.

Pregnant women were officially removed as a vulnerable population under the Revised Common Rule in 2017, a shift to ensure that they were justly represented in biomedical research and development and were able to reap the benefits of scientific advancement ( 37 ). However, this adjustment preceded the complications posed by the end of the constitutional right to abortion, including threats of bodily harm, stigma, and criminalization. These threats are particularly salient for Black women living in the United States, who are three times more likely to die from preventable pregnancy complications than white women. Racial disparities in maternal health outcomes are amplified by other forms of oppression, such as lack of access to reproductive healthcare, structural racism, and lack of social support, which make women more vulnerable to harm during pregnancy ( 38 ). Furthermore, recent estimates indicate that abortion bans have the potential to increase maternal mortality by 21% overall and up to 33% among Black Americans.

Additionally, women who are denied abortions experience a cascade of economic hardships and serious health complications associated with carrying a pregnancy to term ( 39 ). Before Dobbs, Texas Senate Bill 8 offered a glimpse into the dangerous future of abortion bans and raised questions about which communities were disproportionately harmed by abortion restrictions and increasingly made vulnerable by the research process ( 6 ). Previous scholarship reveals that women in minoritized communities may experience excessive research risks and barriers to meaningful research participation because of preexisting comorbidities, environmental factors, and structural inequities ( 30 , 40 , 41 ). These concerns are heightened in states and territories that restrict or ban abortion. Notably, eroding access to abortion care has the most profound and pernicious ramifications for Black families, as Black people are disproportionately burdened by various forms of economic and social inequalities that diminish birth equity and just access to all forms of reproductive healthcare ( 13 , 14 ).

As an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners with a focus on reproductive health equity, we raise important questions related to power asymmetries between those conducting research and the individuals volunteering as participants. Our concerns include: how might data intended to better understand various birth control methods be safeguarded from surveillance and criminalization? How might vulnerable populations be prioritized in the current political climate? And how might the conceptual frameworks, underlying assumptions, and language used by researchers perpetuate harmful narratives about sexuality, pregnancy, birth control, and abortion?

In light of these questions, we understand research as a powerful tool to advance social justice. We argue that the inclusion of vulnerable groups in research can be a pathway to affirming the rights of all people to partake in social life, public expression, and bodily freedom. Individuals can share invaluable insights derived from navigating their marginalized social positionality, which otherwise may be undervalued, misunderstood, or concealed. Most evidently, research findings can mobilize healthcare systems to better meet the needs of populations who stand to benefit most from new understandings and health innovations. It is in the spirit of balancing these potential benefits and risks that the authors offer these considerations.

Considerations for ethically responsible abortion research

Abortion restrictions heighten risks for all parties involved in scientific research. However, it is imperative to recognize that research participants are especially vulnerable to research-related harms in the post- Roe era. Conducting ethical and respectful abortion research requires investigators to focus on the needs and preferences of marginalized communities across the research continuum, starting with the development of research questions and continuing through the study development, implementation, and dissemination of research findings.

In the absence of formal guidance on abortion-related research ethics, the recommendations that follow have been shaped by the authors’ collective experiences working with structurally vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. The considerations presented in the following sections are intended to highlight the value of meaningful community engagement, dialogue, and collaboration when engaging participants burdened by social and structural vulnerabilities.

Community and stakeholder engagement

The equitable and just engagement of individuals and communities in abortion research requires working with community leaders and local organizations to improve ethical decision-making. Sophisticated engagement strategies, especially those that elevate the lived experiences of community members, are critical for understanding and mitigating barriers to reproductive health research participation ( 9 ). Community-engaged research prioritizes an iterative, dynamic research process with heightened attention to the needs (i.e., perceived and actual), realities, and experiences of local stakeholders who ultimately shape the research design, implementation, and dissemination of findings ( 10 , 42 – 44 ). Notably, community-engaged frameworks shift the emphasis of research away from the benefits received by the research team and instead prioritize the needs and preferences of study participants ( 45 ).

Scott, Bray, McLemore, and other scholars highlight the urgent need for collaborative, community-engaged research marked by “radical curiosity and courage” to advance health equity and reproductive justice ( 27 ). We follow their lead, embracing cultural humility and meaningful community partnerships, to advocate for a braver, bolder approach to abortion research and reproductive ethics. While traditional research ethics models focus heavily on institutional- and investigator-driven values, we advocate for an expanded understanding of scholarship that accurately reflects and elevates the voices and values of research participants.

Risks to participants with social and structural vulnerabilities

Research with communities burdened with social and structural vulnerabilities has given rise to unique ethical challenges that require context-specific research protection and stakeholder engagement. Psychological, legal, social, and economic harms are among the many risks relevant to research in post-Roe environments ( 28 , 46 ). Volunteers in abortion research may face stigma, criminalization, discrimination, health surveillance, and iatrogenic harms. These considerations are especially applicable to abortion research that employs wastewater metabolite testing, health apps for tracking, and interview and focus group research to understand the experiences of people trying to access abortion ( 38 , 47 – 49 ). In light of these risks, researchers should seek guidance from trustworthy stakeholders and local organizations to ensure that their involvement and visibility in the community does not exacerbate risks for already vulnerable groups.

Abortion research participants may be hesitant to disclose the location and state of abortion access because of the potential consequences. Indeed, researchers should evaluate relevant legal risks when working with communities living in areas with restricted abortion access and plan to anonymize or minimize location data collection accordingly. Future research is needed to elicit feedback from community stakeholders to understand how various research settings and social contexts influence the experiences and safety of research participants ( 11 ). It is especially important to engage in discourse with community stakeholders to understand their interpretation of the current political landscape as it relates to reproductive healthcare so that researchers can avoid perpetuating harm.

Privacy and confidentiality

Prior studies involving individuals with substance use disorders and people who use drugs remind us that privacy and confidentiality concerns are critically important to take into account when data can be used to criminalize and stigmatize individuals and communities ( 50 ). Strategies that have been used to enhance privacy and confidentiality include: (1) Certificates of Confidentiality (CoC) which protect the privacy of research participants by restricting access to identifiable, sensitive study information so that it may only be accessed by members of the research team ( 51 ); (2) Protocols that require the anonymization and minimization of nonessential sensitive personal health information; (3) Generation of synthetic datasets that mimic the structure and statistical distribution of organically obtained study data while protecting the identity and private health information of the research participants ( 52 ); (4) “Shield laws” that protect abortion seekers and their helpers from state interference and other forms of legal harm ( 53 ).

Notably, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently proposed rule changes intended to strengthen the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to shield private health information related to pregnancy and reproductive health from law enforcement officials ( 54 ). Legislators in some states are discussing broader information privacy laws to protect commercially obtained data such as those collected in period-tracking apps. Some states have passed “shield laws” intended to protect abortion providers, patients, and their helpers, but these laws do not include specific protections for persons involved in abortion research ( 55 ). Ultimately, researchers and funding agencies must not only consider how to protect private health information, but also how data generated in abortion research will be communicated and disseminated to the public.

Communication and dissemination

Ethical scientific research requires effective communication and timely dissemination of findings to individuals and communities most affected by a particular health issue. Disseminating data to communities is critical for strengthening public trust in clinicians, public health workers, and healthcare systems ( 56 , 57 ). A thorough, evidence-based understanding of health issues is also integral to advocating for policy changes and interventions that promote reproductive and maternal health equity. This is especially true when a health issue is highly stigmatized or politically charged, as in the case of abortion.

In the current political context, in which abortion research generates partisan divides and purposeful disinformation is rampant, it is critically important to consider how study data are communicated and presented to the public. Ethical attention to abortion research involves engaging trusted community leaders and stakeholders to inform equity-centered research communication. This can be accomplished by developing and committing to communication strategies that outline a plan for if and when research findings are misinterpreted or weaponized against marginalized communities.

Developing, implementing, and translating ethically sound abortion research policies and procedures calls for concrete and tailored strategies to advance equitable access to scientific discovery and translation. Promoting the ethical inclusion of minoritized groups in reproductive and maternal health research requires specific attention to a myriad of issues, including privacy and fairness in the use of abortion information, informed consent, and the return of results to participants. Further, dedicated attention to the historical realities, contextual challenges, and concerns of diverse research communities is critical to promoting equity in research. Fostering research justice also involves demonstrating optimal respect for reproductive preferences, lived experiences, overlapping social identities, and the moral agency of minority women ( 15 , 58 ).

Conceptually aligning research with reproductive justice, birth justice, and respectful maternity care frameworks fosters analytic liberation and bolsters scientific rigor ( 59 ). Centering equity and respect in research also has salient implications for equipping future scientists, investigators, and clinician scholars with the knowledge, skills, and structural competency to disrupt longstanding oppression in the research enterprise that prevents certain topics from being prioritized, namely those affecting the health and well-being of Black women and other populations made vulnerable by overlapping systems of oppression.

Furthermore, respectful and ethical research highlights the importance of bioethicists with empirical and normative training leading robust discourse around abortion-related research and the healthcare needs of Black women. To safeguard against research-related harms in the post- Roe era, it is essential that funding agencies, research institutions, IRBs, and investigators elucidate the needs, values, and preferences of marginalized communities across the research continuum. Insights from existing training programs, funding mechanisms, and organizations are foundational for informing broader research ethics frameworks that responsibly address the complexities that arise in maternal and reproductive health research, especially related to abortion ( 2 , 5 , 60 ). Ethically responsible research in the post-Roe era—especially research with minoritized communities demands equity, justice, and respect.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Author contributions

SS: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. AA: Writing – review & editing. RD: Writing – review & editing. TM: Writing – review & editing. FL: Writing – review & editing. FF: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported in part by the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award number K01HG011495–01 and the Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics Grant awarded to FF.

Acknowledgments

We extend our sincere gratitude to our colleagues in the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Works-in-Progress Group for their thoughtful feedback on this paper. We are especially thankful for Whitney Rice, Director of the Center for Reproductive Health Research in the Southeast (RISE) at Emory University, who reviewed an earlier version of this commentary. We thank the many Black women scholars and reproductive justice advocates who have long called for equity, justice, and respect in research with minoritized populations. We appreciate the ongoing work of Celia Fisher and others involved in the HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute (RETI) at Fordham University—their praxis and resolute support for ethical and respectful research with minoritized populations offers us guidance and inspiration.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

1. UCSF abortion research rapid response grant (2023). Available at: https://rdo.ucsf.edu/ucsf-abortion-research-rapid-response-grant (Accessed October 7, 2023).

Google Scholar

2. Society of Family Planning (2023). Available at: https://societyfp.org/grantmaking/funding-opportunities/previous-funding-opportunities/ (Accessed October 7, 2023).

3. Black Mamas Matter Alliance (2023). Available at: Blackmamasmatter.org (Accessed October 7, 2023).

4. Crear-Perry, JA . National Birthing Equity Collective (2023). Available at: https://orwh.od.nih.gov/sites/orwh/files/docs/CrearPerryJoiaBio508.pdf (Accessed October 7, 2023).

5. Mother Lab [Internet] (2023). Available at: https://motherlab.org/meet-the-lab/ (Accessed October 15, 2023).

6. Arey, W, Lerma, K, Beasley, A, Harper, L, Moayedi, G, and White, K. A preview of the dangerous future of abortion bans—Texas senate Bill 8. N Engl J Med . (2022) 387:388–90. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2207423

CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

7. Redd, SK, Mosley, EA, Narasimhan, S, Newton-Levinson, A, AbiSamra, R, Cwiak, C, et al. Estimation of multiyear consequences for abortion access in Georgia under a law limiting abortion to early pregnancy. JAMA Netw Open . (2023) 6:3. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.1598

PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

8. Resnik, DB . The ethics of research with human subjects: protecting people, advancing science, promoting trust . Cham, Switzerland: Springer (2018). 316 p.

9. Israel, BA, Coombe, CM, Cheezum, RR, Schulz, AJ, McGranaghan, RJ, Lichtenstein, R, et al. Community-based participatory research: a capacity-building approach for policy advocacy aimed at eliminating health disparities. Am J Public Health . (2010) 100:2094–102. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.170506

10. Fletcher, FE, Rice, WS, Ingram, LA, and Fisher, CB. Ethical challenges and lessons learned from qualitative research with low-income African American women living with HIV in the south. J Health Care Poor Underserved . (2019) 30:116–29. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2019.0122

11. Julian, Z, Robles, D, Whetstone, S, Perritt, JB, Jackson, AV, Hardeman, RR, et al. Community-informed models of perinatal and reproductive health services provision: a justice-centered paradigm toward equity among Black birthing communities. Sem Perinatol . (2020) 44:151267. doi: 10.1016/j.semperi.2020.151267

12. Crear-Perry, J, Hassan, A, and Daniel, S. Advancing birth equity in a post-Dobbs US. JAMA . (2022) 328:1689–90. doi: 10.1001/jama.2022.19468

13. Riley, T, Zia, Y, Samari, G, and Sharif, MZ. Abortion criminalization: a public health crisis rooted in white supremacy. Am J Public Health . (2022) 112:1662–7. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2022.307014

14. Fletcher, FE, Lapite, FC, and Best, A. Rethinking the moral Authority of Experience: critical insights and reflections from Black women scholars. Am J Bioeth . (2023) 23:27–30. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2022.2146807

15. Gunn, AJ, Hardesty, M, Overstreet, N, and Wallace, S. “Every time I tell my story I learn something new”: voice and inclusion in research with Black women with histories of substance use and incarceration. Criminol Crim Just . (2022) 22:505–24. doi: 10.1177/17488958211005820

16. Gunn, A . Testimonies and healing: anti-oppressive research with Black women and the implications for compassionate ethical care. Hastings Cent Rep . (2022) 52:S42–5. doi: 10.1002/hast.1369

17. James, JE . Black feminist bioethics: centering community to ask better questions. Hastings Cent Rep . (2022) 52:S21–3.

18. Thomas, SP . Trust also means centering Black women's reproductive health narratives. Hastings Cent Rep . (2022) 52:S18–21. doi: 10.1002/hast.1362

19. Kozhimannil, KB, Hassan, A, and Hardeman, RR. Abortion access as a racial justice issue. N Engl J Med . (2022) 17:1537–9.

20. Sugarman, J, Wenner, DM, Rid, A, Henry, LM, Luna, F, Klitzman, R, et al. Ethical research when abortion access is legally restricted. Science . (2023) 380:1224–6. doi: 10.1126/science.adh3104

21. Bartlett, RH, and Yahia, C. Management of septic chemical abortion with renal failure: report of five consecutive cases with five survivors. N Engl J Med . (1969) 281:747–53. doi: 10.1056/NEJM196910022811401

22. Gold, RB . Lessons from before roe: will past be prologue. Guttmacher Rep Public Policy . (2003) 6:8–11.

23. Cates, W, Grimes, DA, and Schulz, KF. The public health impact of legal abortion: 30 years later. Perspect Sex Reprod Health . (2003) 35:025–8. doi: 10.1363/3502503

24. Waggoner, MR, and Lyerly, AD. Another consequence of overturning roe: imperiling Progress on clinical research in pregnancy. Am J Bioeth . (2022) 22:59–62. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2022.2088894

25. Wisner, KL, Stika, CS, and Watson, K. Pregnant women are still therapeutic orphans. World Psychiatry . (2020) 19:329–30. doi: 10.1002/wps.20776

26. Scott, KA, Bray, S, and McLemore, MR. First, do no harm: why philanthropy needs to re-examine its role in reproductive equity and racial justice. Health Equity . (2020) 4:17–22. doi: 10.1089/heq.2019.0094

27. Ogbu-Nwobodo, L, Shim, RS, Vinson, SY, Fitelson, EM, Biggs, MA, McLemore, MR, et al. Mental health implications of abortion restrictions for historically marginalized populations. N Engl J Med . (2022) 387:1613–7. doi: 10.1056/NEJMms2211124

28. Amutah-Onukagha, N, Abrams, JA, Stewart, CK, Black, A, Rhone, TJ, Kheyfets, A, et al. Black maternal health scholars on fire: building a network for collaboration and activism. Health Serv Res . (2023) 58:202–6. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.14091

29. Goodwin, M . Policing the womb: invisible women and the criminalization of motherhood Cambridge University Press (2020). 324 p.

30. Management of Stillbirth . Obstetric care consensus no, 10. Obstet Gynecol . (2020) 135:e110–32. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000003719

31. D’Alton, ME, Friedman, AM, Bernstein, PS, Brown, HL, Callaghan, WM, Clark, SL, et al. Putting the “M” back in maternal-fetal medicine: a 5-year report card on a collaborative effort to address maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. Am J Obstet Gynecol . (2019) 221:311–317.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2019.02.055

32. Koopmans, L, Wilson, T, Cacciatore, J, and Flenady, V. Support for mothers, fathers and families after perinatal death. Cochrane Database Syst Rev . (2013) 6:1–6. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD000452.pub3

33. Hill, PE . Support and counseling after maternal death. Sem Perinatol . (2012) 36:84–8. doi: 10.1053/j.semperi.2011.09.016

34. Fisher, CB . HIV prevention research ethics: an introduction to the special issue. J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics . (2014) 9:1–5. doi: 10.1525/jer.2014.9.1.1

35. Bourgois, P, Holmes, SM, Sue, K, and Quesada, J. Structural vulnerability: operationalizing the concept to address health disparities in clinical care. Acad Med . (2017) 92:299–307. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000001294

36. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services . HIPAA privacy rule notice of proposed rulemaking to support reproductive health care privacy fact sheet . Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2023).

37. Szpot, P, Wachełko, O, Jurek, T, and Zawadzki, M. Determination of mifepristone (RU-486) and its metabolites in maternal blood sample after pharmacological abortion. Molecules . (2022) 27:7605. doi: 10.3390/molecules27217605

38. Foster, DG . The Turnaway study: ten years, a thousand women, and the consequences of having—Or being denied—An abortion . New York: Simon and Schuster (2021). 360.

39. Roberts, DE . Killing the Black body: race, reproduction, and the meaning of liberty . New York: Pantheon Books (1997). 371 p.

40. Washington, HA . Medical apartheid: The dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present . New York: Doubleday Books (2006). 485 p.

41. Brown, VA . Centering social justice for Covid-19 resources and research. Hastings Cent Rep . (2021) 51:51–3. doi: 10.1002/hast.1287

42. Solomon, SR . Protecting and respecting the vulnerable: existing regulations or further protections? Theor Med Bioeth . (2013) 34:17–28. doi: 10.1007/s11017-013-9242-8

43. Israel, BA, Krieger, J, Vlahov, D, Ciske, S, Foley, M, Fortin, P, et al. Challenges and facilitating factors in sustaining community-based participatory research partnerships: lessons learned from the Detroit, new York City and Seattle urban research centers. J Urban Health . (2006) 83:1022–40. doi: 10.1007/s11524-006-9110-1

44. Childerhose, JE, Finnila, CR, Yu, JH, Koenig, BA, McEwen, J, Berg, SL, et al. Participant engagement in translational genomics research: respect for persons—and then some. Ethics Hum Res . (2019) 41:2–15. doi: 10.1002/eahr.500029

45. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Human Research Review Section (2008). Available at: https://www.dshs.wa.gov/sites/default/files/hrrs/documents/RisksandBenefits.pdf (Accessed October 7, 2023).

46. Clayton, EW, Embí, PJ, and Malin, BA. Dobbs and the future of health data privacy for patients and healthcare organizations. J Am Med Inform Assoc . (2023) 30:155–60. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocac155

47. Dhumal, T, Siddiqui, ZA, and Davidov, D. PCR182 study to understand Women's perception on the recent abortion ban (BILL 302) in West Virginia. Value Health . (2023) 26:S346. doi: 10.1016/j.jval.2023.03.1958

48. Rudolph, AE, Young, AM, and Havens, JR. A rural/urban comparison of privacy and confidentiality concerns associated with providing sensitive location information in epidemiologic research involving persons who use drugs. Addict Behav . (2017) 74:106–11. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.06.006

49. Information protected by a CoC . (2023). Available at: https://grants.nih.gov/policy/humansubjects/coc/information-protected-coc.htm (Accessed October 7, 2023).

50. Goodday, S, Karlin, D, Suver, C, and Friend, S. The post-roe political landscape demands a morality of caution for Women’s health. J Med Internet Res . (2022) 24:e41417. doi: 10.2196/41417

51. Cohen, DS, Donley, G, and Rebouché, R. Abortion shield Laws. NEJM Evid . (2023) 2:EVIDra2200280

52. Health and Human Services Department . HIPAA privacy rule to support reproductive health care privacy Vol. 88, Federal Register (2023). 1–48. Available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-07517 (Accessed October 7, 2023).

53. Spector-Bagdady, K, and Mello, MM. Protecting the privacy of reproductive health information after the fall of roe v Wade. JAMA Health Forum . (2022) 3:e222656. doi: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.2656

54. American Public Health Association . (2019). Available at: https://www.apha.org/-/media/files/pdf/membergroups/ethics/code_of_ethics.ashx (Accessed October 7, 2023).

55. Story, A, and Fletcher, FE. Advancing maternal health equity with data transparency: the case of Texas (2022). Available at: https://www.thehastingscenter.org/advancing-maternal-health-equity-with-data-transparency-the-case-of-texas/ (Accessed October 7, 2023).

56. Schelenz, L . Artificial intelligence between oppression and resistance: black feminist perspectives on emerging technologies In: Artificial intelligence and its discontents: critiques from the social sciences and humanities . Cambridge: Springer International Publishing (2022). 225–49.

57. Office for Human Research Protection . (n.d.) Protecting research volunteers. Available at: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ohrp-protecting-research-volunteer-infographic.pdf (Accessed October 7, 2023).

58. Center for Ethics Education . (n.d.) Available at: https://www.fordham.edu/academics/centers-and-institutes/center-for-ethics-education/hiv-and-drug-abuse-prevention-research-ethics-training-institute/about-reti/ (Accessed October 7, 2023).

59. The Center for Reproductive Health Research in the Southeast (2022). Available at: https://rise.emory.edu/ (Accessed October 7, 2023).

60. Birthing Cultural Rigor . (2023). Available at: https://www.birthingculturalrigor.com/ (Accessed October 7, 2023).

Keywords: abortion, research ethics, health equity, reproductive health research, population vulnerability

Citation: Schott SL, Adams A, Dougherty RJ, Montgomery T, Lapite FC and Fletcher FE (2023) Renewed calls for abortion-related research in the post-Roe era. Front. Public Health . 11:1322299. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1322299

Received: 16 October 2023; Accepted: 29 November 2023; Published: 18 December 2023.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2023 Schott, Adams, Dougherty, Montgomery, Lapite and Fletcher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Faith E. Fletcher, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Services Paper editing services Paper proofreading Business papers Philosophy papers Write my paper Term papers for sale Term paper help Academic term papers Buy research papers College writing services Paper writing help Student papers Original term papers Research paper help Nursing papers for sale Psychology papers Economics papers Medical papers Blog

159 Abortion Research Paper Topics: Creative Ideas List

Abortion is a very controversial issue discussed in different panels all over the world. Because of how vast the topic of abortion is, many interesting research papers can be written about it. For many students, picking the right topic to build their abortion thesis on can seem complicated, and finding the right topic is the bedrock to writing an excellent essay. This article aims at exposing all students to interesting abortion research topics that will help them write high-quality and in-depth research papers on abortion for their university programs. Abortion is simply a medical procedure that intentionally ends a pregnancy before a fetus is born. There are a lot of opinions about abortion, with some opposing it, stating various religious or ethical reasons why it is wrong. Those who support it do that with human rights and medical backing.

What Makes a Good Abortion Thesis Paper?

The first step to writing your essay is picking the right topic, but after you do that, there is a structure to put your thoughts into writing to deliver the best quality thesis paper. This section highlights how to outline and arrange your ideas to produce a good paper at the end. Follow the below outline when writing your abortion essay.

Before Beginning the Paper

Don’t just start writing immediately, do the below pre-writing activities first

Select a Topic : As mentioned above, an essential part of writing an essay is picking the right topic. The right topic should be interesting to you and appeal to your readers. State your Argument : Now that you know the abortion topic you want to write on, what is your argument? Are you going to oppose or support the issue? Your answer will help build a research paper on the topic. Conduct a Research : without proper research, you might end up misinforming your audience. Take time out to dig deep and find evidence that backs up your research. Organize your References : Your references need to be credible. The evidence shows you have done research to back your thesis.

Writing the Paper

After completing your pre-writing exercises, it is time to write your essay properly. Use this as a guideline.

The Introduction : your Introduction should aim at grabbing the reader’s interest and ensuring that they are interested enough to read the rest of your paper. The opening is what starts the report. It also lets the reader know that your paper is worth reading.
The Body : The body is the main section of the paper. This is where you present your actual writing. Here you state each idea and back it up with evidence. Your tone, style, and grammar must be concise, making your paper interesting enough for your professor to read. Do not miss out on any detail here. You are allowed to be as descriptive as you want.
Conclusion : Here, you summarize the main points of your paper and highlight what you would like the reader to remember from reading your work.

Many students find writing a research paper challenging. Following the above structure will help you write a proper essay that will guarantee the best scores. Now that you know how to write a great paper, here are some good topics to help you begin. Before you get acquainted with our perfect list, remember you always have an opportunity to buy a custom research paper from our team of professional helpers. Just c ontact us with a “ do my research paper ” request and get a top grade.

Abortion Topics for Research Paper

Abortion is a topic that has different opinions and conversations. These are some topics you can explore when writing about abortion.

Explore the possible side effects of abortion.
Medical reasons for abortions.
Different religions and their stands on abortion.
Why the government should ban abortion
History of abortion.
The abortion procedure explained.
General misinformation about abortion.
What other gender-borne concerns can be connected to abortion?
Considering that the legislators who pass pro-life regulations are male, can abortion be considered reproductive control?
The Problems of Abortion in Modern Society.
Pro-life and Pro-choice Sides of Abortion. Who is right?
Is Africa ready to embrace abortion?
Abortion and virtue ethics.
Legalizing Abortion: Advantages and Justification.
Legalization of Abortion for Underage Girls.
Abortion as a Crime and the Fight Against It
Teenage Pregnancy, Abortion and Sex Education.
Abortion in Ireland: Law and Public Opinion.
The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in Canada.
Abortion: An Unsolvable Dilemma?
Abortion: Premeditated Murder or a Reasonable Way Out?
Abortion: Strengths and Limitations
Is the abortion rate declining? What are the factors contributing to it?
Abortion is legal but is it ethical?
The upward trend and demand for abortion in the United States.
What is abortion counseling, and who should provide it?

Essay Topics on Abortions

To write a proper essay on abortion, you need to look at different perspectives before deciding on your topic. Here are some essay topics that explore different perspectives of the abortion discussion.

Has the legalization of abortion played any part in reducing crime rates in the United States?
How Have Abortion Laws Changed Around the World?
How Has Abortion and Birth Control Affected the 20th and 21st Century?
Who Should Decide the Legality of Abortion?
Why Has Abortion Created Serious Debates and Controversies Among the Mainline?
Should the Right to Have an abortion lay on the woman alone?
Why Should Abortion Remain Legal and With Limitations?
Historically, what were the main reasons women of various titles abort children?
What were the methods used for abortion before the development of modern medicine?
Is the history of abortion relevant to the contemporary debate? Why or why not?
Understanding the risks of teenage abortion.
Is Self-Defense Abortion Permissible?
Should women have the right to abortion if serious handicaps are detected in their children?
Third-trimester abortions: Are they ever morally permissible?
Is it immoral to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term against her will?
Who can teenagers talk to if they want to get an abortion?
Some medical effects of abortion on the woman’s body.
How lack of resources affects the occurrences of unsafe abortions in developing countries.
Is a woman who has had an abortion considered a mother?
Republican and Democratic views on abortion.
The roles religion plays in the social discussion and perception of abortion.
Is abortion about women’s health, or is it a choice of convenience?
What does early and late abortion mean?
Who has more rights when it concerns abortion, and why?
Should health insurance cover abortions?
Abortion and how it affects adoptions.
Why do teenagers need consent from a parent before having an abortion?
In cases of incest, is abortion morally right?
Abortion is always wrong. Explain
How do we reduce the rate of abortion in the United States while keeping abortion safe and accessible to all women?
What are the rights of a fetus?
The effects of repeated abortions on future pregnancies.
Abortion rights and patriarchy.
The perception of abortion in different cultures.
Why do the abortion policies differ per state in the United States?

Abortion Argumentative Topics

Everyone has a different view about abortion, which sometimes leads to intelligent arguments. Some topics that can present your points argumentatively include:

Moral and ethical arguments concerning abortion.
Abortion laws and how it contradicts women’s fundamental human rights.
What are the pros and cons of having an abortion?
Under what circumstances should abortion be considered?
The abortion and mental health controversy.
Abortion in older women. Is it safe?
The rights of a father in the abortion decision.
Christianity and abortion.
Who should have the final say on abortion? The woman, the hospital, or the government?
Cultural arguments surrounding abortion.
Examine the generation gap in abortion support.
How accessible is abortion in Africa?
Mental health consequences of refused abortions.
Is abortion a mortal sin?
Why is there a stigma surrounding abortion?
Abortions due to medical mistakes, should there be legal actions?
Do mothers regret their actions after abortion?
A cross-study of abortion laws in Malawi.
Side effects of illegal abortions.
The role of parents in the minor’s decision to abort.
When is the best time to have an abortion?
Psychiatric aspects of abortion.

Abortion Research Questions

There are many complex ethical, moral, legal, and religious perspectives concerning abortion. Some interesting questions you can research include:

Should Abortions be legal?
In what countries are abortions legal?
How does abortion relate to mental health?
What issues are agreeable reasons for abortions?
Does rape justify abortion?
Will abortion affect subsequent pregnancies?
What are the abortion laws surrounding teenagers?
Why is abortion such a controversial issue?
What are the current laws regarding abortion?
What do women want from abortion services?
Has abortion been politicized?
Why is abortion still illegal in some countries?
Why is abortion such a controversial issue worldwide?

College Research Topics about Abortion

College students are responsible for writing clear and concise research papers built on good topics. The following are some interesting topics college students can write on.

The Physiological effects of having an abortion
Controversies surrounding abortion.
A critical look at the United States laws concerning abortion?
Common misconceptions about abortion.
What is incomplete abortion, and how does it affects the woman’s health?
Abortion amongst teenagers and adolescents.
Understanding induced abortion.
The process of legalization of abortion in Japan.
When is abortion denied?
The adverse effects of self-induced abortions.
Post-abortion complications as a result of visiting illegal abortion centers.
Childhood trauma and its connection to women seeking an abortion.
What is a post-abortion syndrome?
Understanding why some women opt for abortion.
Barriers to access to abortion
Different abortion methods, pros, and cons.
Do the fathers have their say in abortion?
Abortion laws and restrictions. A cross-examination of The United States and India.
Clandestine abortion and all it entails.
Abortion laws around the world: progress and pushbacks.
Abortion and how it is linked to population growth and reduction.
Looking at the punishment for abortion in countries where they ate illegal.
Is abortion immoral?
Should the rights of the unborn be more important than the mothers?
What are the medical arguments for and against abortion?
The evolution of abortion laws.
What are the changes people opposing abortion are trying to effect?
What changes are those supporting abortion trying to effect?
What are the cultural arguments for and against abortion?
History of the anti-abortion movement.
Why do various religions have different views on abortion?
Would a complete abortion ban be a correct solution from a religious viewpoint? Why or why not?
When applied to abortion, what are the different ethical notions?
What would be some negative consequences of an abortion ban?
Why is abortion considered to be a feminist issue?
Illegal abortions in India, and how it affects the girl child.
Post-abortion discussion: How to avoid a repeat case of unwanted pregnancy.

Controversial Abortion Research Paper Topics

Abortion is one of the most controversial subjects in modern society, and there are many strong feelings for or against this topic. Some controversial abortion topics you can build on include:

How has the rise of women’s rights affected abortion rates in The United States?
What is late-term abortion?
What is the difference between the morality and legality of abortion?
When is abortion the right option?
Why women should be able to have an abortion whenever they please.
Canada and China have no legal restrictions on abortion. Any woman in these countries can get an abortion whenever she pleases. Should there be any restrictions on abortion? If not, why not? If so, what should those restrictions be and why?
Does life begin at conception?
Should we consider the fetus a separate being, or is it a part of its mother?
What is a better option: abort an unplanned pregnancy or have the child neglected after birth?
Adoption as an alternative to Abortion: Discuss
How has legalizing abortion impacted the birth rate?
Discuss the abortion debate and human rights.
Why does the public support for legal termination of pregnancy remain high?
Should men be allowed to discuss the termination of pregnancy?
How race, poverty, and choice affect the abortion rate.
Abortion vs. using embryos for research and IVF: Evaluate
Should an aborting woman go through forced sterilization?
Should birth control be considered as wrong as abortions?
Why is it hard for some women to have an abortion even if something is wrong with a fetus?
Why do many married couples have abortions?
Is it better to have an abortion or give birth and place a baby in the orphanage?
Is abortion a simple operation, or is it a severe psychological trauma for women?
A woman’s life before and after abortion: what changes exactly?
Canadian Abortion Laws and Women’s Rights.
Debate on Abortion: Ethics and Principles.

Writing Help For Your Saviour

The success of an essay is first determined by the topic you write on. But picking the topic is not the only important factor. You are also required to write a detailed and concise essay. With all the workload of a college student, it might be tough to deliver your best when you write an essay. Sometimes, you should allow experts and professionals from different disciplines to provide thesis help and write the perfect essay. We provide custom research papers that can be delivered to you fast. Our team of writers consists of University graduates, professors, and teachers who can write essays suitable for undergraduate and Ph.D. students alike. Our research paper services are affordable, secure, and easily accessed by everyone online.

About Abortion

Narrow the topic.

Articles & Videos
MLA Citation This link opens in a new window
APA Citation This link opens in a new window

Is abortion immoral?
How can Roe v. Wade be overturned?
Should the "right of conscience" regulation apply to pharmacists?
Should the rights of the unborn be more important than the rights of the mother?
Is abortion justifiable after a rape?
Is the fight against Planned Parenthood justified?
Is partial birth abortion infanticide?
Should Planned Parenthood be funded by the government?
Next: Library Resources >>
Last Updated: Feb 6, 2024 11:38 AM
URL: https://libguides.broward.edu/abortion

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

View all journals
My Account Login
Explore content
About the journal
Publish with us
Sign up for alerts
Open access
Published: 02 January 2024

Psychological traits and public attitudes towards abortion: the role of empathy, locus of control, and need for cognition

Jiuqing Cheng 1 ,
Ping Xu 2 &
Chloe Thostenson 1

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 11 , Article number: 23 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

2422 Accesses

1 Altmetric

Metrics details

Social policy

In the summer of 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the historic Roe v. Wade ruling, prompting various states to put forth ballot measures regarding state-level abortion rights. While earlier studies have established associations between demographics, such as religious beliefs and political ideologies, and attitudes toward abortion, the current research delves into the role of psychological traits such as empathy, locus of control, and need for cognition. A sample of 294 U.S. adults was obtained via Amazon Mechanical Turk, and participants were asked to provide their attitudes on seven abortion scenarios. They also responded to scales measuring empathy toward the pregnant woman and the unborn, locus of control, and need for cognition. Principal Component Analysis divided abortion attitudes into two categories: traumatic abortions (e.g., pregnancies due to rape) and elective abortions (e.g., the woman does not want the child anymore). After controlling for religious belief and political ideology, the study found psychological factors accounted for substantial variation in abortion attitudes. Notably, empathy toward the pregnant woman correlated positively with abortion support across both categories, while empathy toward the unborn revealed an inverse relationship. An internal locus of control was positively linked to support for both types of abortions. Conversely, external locus of control and need for cognition only positively correlated with attitudes toward elective abortion, showing no association with traumatic abortion attitudes. Collectively, these findings underscore the significant and unique role psychological factors play in shaping public attitudes toward abortion. Implications for research and practice were discussed.

Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions

Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers

Mechanisms linking social media use to adolescent mental health vulnerability

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the long-time landmark ruling of Roe v. Wade in 2022 summer. Debates and legal challenges regarding legal abortion in the U.S. have been heated (Felix et al., 2023 ). Furthermore, residents in several states have or will cast their vote on a ballot measure to determine abortion rights at the state level. A Gallup poll released in 2023 summer found that about one third of voters indicated that they would only vote for a candidate who shared their views on abortion (Saad, 2023 ). Therefore, it is imperative to understand people’s attitudes toward abortion. Past research on such attitudes have mainly focused on the role of political ideology and religious belief (e.g., Hess and Rueb, 2005 ); however, to our knowledge, relatively few studies have been done to examine the psychological underpinnings. Here we propose that examining the correlations between psychological factors and attitudes toward abortion has the potential to make contributions from the perspectives of both research and practice.

First, compared to attitudes in everyday life such as attitudes toward a product or brand, attitudes toward abortion are unique because it often elicits strong emotional response and conflict experience (Foster et al., 2012 ; Scott, 1989 ). Moreover, such an attitude goes beyond individual preference as it is deeply intertwined with one’s moral and religious beliefs, cultural background, and societal norms. Debate on abortion is not merely about a personal choice; it is about the definitions of life, rights, and autonomy (Osborne et al., 2022 ; Scott, 1989 ). For abortion, the contrasting views may lead to polarized opinions. In contrast, disagreements about a product or brand preference are typically less emotionally charged and do not carry the same societal weight. Therefore, given the unique nature of attitudes toward abortion as described above, it remains unclear whether psychological factors that correlate with attitudes in other areas still apply and, if so, in what capacity they do so. Additionally, as introduced below, several studies in this area employed a qualitative approach (interview). While the qualitative approach offered valuable insights into individuals’ perspectives on abortion, we aim to expand upon these findings by employing a quantitative approach. Especially, the quantitative approach allows us to explore the unique relationship between psychology and abortion attitudes after statistically controlling for other powerful factors like religious belief and political ideology. Together, a major goal of the present study is to provide initial empirical evidence for the correlations between attitudes toward abortion and certain psychological factors. We will further detail how our study might fill research gaps when introducing specific psychological factors as described below.

Second, examining the correlations between psychological factors and attitudes toward abortion may also offer practical insights. Consider the role of thinking style, for instance. The decision to pursue an abortion is imperative and often a prominently salient one, impacting not just the pregnant woman but also her family and extensive social network. Such a decision is complex and challenging due to intense feelings (e.g., conflict) and the balance between a woman’s bodily autonomy and fetal rights. From this viewpoint, there might be a correlation between attitudes toward abortion and one’s thinking style, especially their willingness to address complex and difficult issues. Past research has highlighted the connection between rational decision-making and the availability of relevant information (Shafir and LeBoeuf, 2002 ). Hence, to facilitate informed decisions, comprehensive knowledge about abortion is both essential and beneficial. The present study will examine the relationship between thinking style and abortion attitudes. Should a correlation be identified, our study would suggest individuals engage more deeply in critical thinking about the issues of abortion to enhance abortion-related education and informed decision-making.

Together, the present study aims to shed more light on the unique role of psychology in abortion attitudes, particularly in the presence of political ideology and religious belief. Specifically, we choose to examine the factors of empathy, locus of control, and thinking style (need for cognition) based on three considerations. Firstly, from a face validity perspective, the psychological constructs are predicted to exhibit a relationship with abortion attitudes. For example, the internal locus of control aligns well with the pro-choice mantra, ‘my body, my choice. Secondly, as detailed below, although these constructs have been explored in previous studies, they have only received limited attention and their relations with abortion attitudes remain inconclusive. Hence, our study aims to fill the gaps from past research by further clarifying their roles in attitudes toward abortion. Thirdly, research has indicated significant intersections between elements like cognitive style, empathy, and locus of control with various decisions, especially in health contexts (Marton et al., 2021 ; Pfattheicher et al., 2020 ; Xu and Cheng, 2021 ). These elements are tied to motivation, information analysis, and make trade-offs (Fischhoff and Broomell, 2020 ). Building on this, our study seeks to explore the applicability of these factors to the deeply sensitive and polarizing decision of abortion. On the other hand, it is worth noting that the psychological factors examined in our study are not exhaustive or driven by theoretical considerations. However, as mentioned in recent publications (Osborne et al., 2022 ; Valdez et al., 2022 ), past research on abortion attitudes with a psychological perspective is still limited. Therefore, our hope is that the present study could provide initial yet meaningful empirical evidence to exhibit the sophisticated role of psychology in attitudes toward abortion. We detail our rationales for each factor below.

Empathy refers to a variety of cognitive and affective responses, including sharing and understanding, toward others’ experiences (Pfattheicher et al., 2020 ). Previous studies have demonstrated a positive association between empathy and prosocial behaviors, such as caring for others (Moudatsou et al., 2020 ; Klimecki et al., 2016 ), as well as a reduction in conflict and stigma (Batson et al., 1997 ; Klimecki, 2019 ). Recently, Pfattheicher et al. ( 2020 ) also demonstrated that inducing empathy for the vulnerable people could promote taking preventative measures during the Covid-19 pandemic. While researchers advocated for incorporating empathy into abortion-related mental health intervention (Brown et al., 2022 ), the role of empathy in attitudes toward abortion remains understudied. Hunt ( 2019 ) investigated the impact of empathy toward pregnant women by presenting testimonial videos in which a pregnant woman described the challenges she faced due to legal abortion restrictions in Arkansas. However, this manipulation did not significantly reduce participants’ support for the abortion restrictions. Research has found that people’s views on abortion tends to be stable over time (Jelen and Wilcox, 2003 ; Pew Research Center, 2022 ). Hence, a short video used in Hunt ( 2019 ) might not be able to change people’s long-held views on abortion. Instead, we here hypothesize that the pre-existing but not temporality induced empathy play a role in abortion attitudes.

Furthermore, in addition to the empathy toward pregnant woman, it is also reasonable to assume that (some) people may feel empathy toward the unborn. For instance, interviews with Protestant religious leaders exhibited empathy toward both pregnant women and unborn (Dozier et al., 2020 ). Embree ( 1998 ) asked participants to indicate their opinions when responding to different scenarios of abortion. As a result, the study found that 64% and 17% of participants showed a moderate and strong level of empathy for the unborn, respectively. Despite the informative findings, the relationship between attitudes toward abortion and empathy toward the unborn remains unclear, particularly when taking empathy toward pregnant woman and other factors (e.g., political ideology) into account.

Together, we raise three hypotheses regarding the role of empathy as shown below.

H1a: Empathy toward pregnant woman and unborn can coexist.

H1b: People’s empathy toward pregnant woman are positively related to the support toward abortion.

H1c: People’s empathy toward unborn are negatively related to the support toward abortion.

As empathy has been highlighted in the intervention process when dealing with abortion-related mental health issues (Brown et al., 2022 ; Whitaker et al., 2015 ), we hope our findings could generate implications for future research and practice.

Locus of control

Locus of control (LOC) refers to people’s beliefs regarding whether their life outcomes are controlled and determined by their own (internal LOC) or external resources (fate, chance and/or powerful people, external LOC) (Levenson, 1981 ). Before delving into details, it is important to note that the internal and external LOC refer to different dimensions and are not mutually exclusive (Levenson, 1981 ; Reknes et al., 2019 ). For example, a person’s success may be determined by both hardworking and support from others. Regarding abortion attitudes, Sundstrom et al. ( 2018 ) analyzed interview contents and found that some women’s thoughts on pregnancy and abortion aligned with an internal locus of control (e.g., “As women, we need to take control as much as possible of our reproductive health”), while others aligned with an external locus of control (e.g., “leave it in God’s hands…we’ll just play it by ear and if I get pregnant, I get pregnant”).

The findings from Sundstrom et al. ( 2018 ) were informative and consistent with common sense. For example, at face value level, the slogan of “my body my choice” well aligns with the concept of internal LOC. However, the role of internal LOC in abortion attitudes may be more complicated. That is, religious belief may complicate the association between internal LOC and abortion attitudes. Past studies, including a meta-analysis and a study with over 20,000 participants, found a positive relationship between internal LOC and religious belief (Coursey et al., 2013 ; Falkowski, 2000 ; Iles-Caven et al., 2020 ). As noted in these articles, there are similarities between internal LOC and religious belief. For instance, religious beliefs often provide individuals with a sense of meaning, purpose, and guidance in life. Meanwhile, people higher in internal LOC are more likely to report higher levels of existential well-being and purpose in life, which can be associated with religious belief and engagement (Kim-Prieto et al., 2005 ; Krause and Hayward, 2013 ). Thus, the relationship between internal LOC and religious belief may complicate how internal LOC is involved in the abortion attitudes. Sundstrom et al. ( 2018 ) used interviews to explore the role of LOC in thoughts about abortion. However, this method might not sufficiently differentiate the influence of religious beliefs. In this study, we adopt a quantitative approach, using a classical scale to measure LOC. We aim to empirically assess the relationship between internal LOC and attitudes toward abortion, especially when accounting for religious belief. Furthermore, considering that the relationship between internal LOC and abortion attitudes might be intertwined with religious beliefs, we refrain from positing a specific hypothesis at this point.

External LOC, on the other hand, does not appear to have a significant relationship with religious belief. Additionally, a few studies found that people higher in external LOC tended to attribute outcomes to external reasons (Falkowski, 2000 ; Reknes et al., 2019 ). Building on this concept, individuals with a higher external locus of control (LOC) may be more inclined to attribute pregnancy to external factors and place less emphasis on personal responsibility. Accordingly, we predict the hypothesis below.

H2: External LOC will be positively related to the support toward abortion.

Need for cognition

Based on face validity, thinking style might pertain to one’s perception of abortion. For instance, individuals who prioritize comprehensive and empirical data might arrive at a different conclusion than those who lean on personal stories and emotional narratives. A few studies have tapped into the relationship between thinking style and attitudes toward abortion. Valdez et al. ( 2022 ) conducted qualitative interviews on abortion and employed natural language processing techniques to analyze the interviews. The study identified analytical thinking, which involved considering abortion from multiple perspectives, had a negative relationship with the number of cognitive distortions (such as polarized and rigid thinking about abortion). However, such a finding conflicted with another study by Hill ( 2004 ) where the concept of cognitive complexity (thinking beyond surface-level observations) did not correlate with attitudes toward abortion. The inconsistency might be due to methodological issues. For example, the correlations described above in Valdez et al. ( 2022 ) were derived from a small sample consisting of 16 participants. A low reliability of the cognitive complexity scale used in Hill ( 2004 ) might (partly) address the non-significant relationship. Thus, the present study will utilize the Need for Cognition scale, a widely recognized and validated instrument that measures thinking style, to examine its correlation with attitudes toward abortion in a larger sample.

Need for cognition (NFC) pertains to the inclination to derive satisfaction from and actively participate in effortful thinking (Cacioppo et al., 1984 ). Consistent with its concept, past research demonstrated that NFC was positively correlated with information seeking (Verplanken et al., 1992 ), academic achievement (Richardson et al., 2012 ), and logical reasoning performance (Ding et al., 2020 ). As for attitudes toward abortion, we hypothesize the following.

H3: There will be a positive correlation between NFC and attitudes toward abortion.

Our prediction is based on two reasons. First, NFC drives individuals to actively seek and update information and knowledge. It was discovered that acquiring a deeper understanding of abortion correlated with increased support for it (Hunt, 2019 ; Mollen et al., 2018 ). Second and relatedly, NFC was found to be negatively associated with various stereotype memories and positively related to non-prejudicial social judgments (Crawford and Skowronski, 1998 ; Curşeu and de Jong, 2017 ).

In sum, the present study aims to provide empirical evidence for the association between attitudes toward abortion and psychology by examining and clarifying the role of empathy, locus of control, and need for cognition. Past research has repeatedly found the involvement of political ideology and religious belief in abortion attitudes (e.g., Hess and Rueb, 2005 ; Holman et al., 2020 ; Jelen, 2017 ; Osborne et al., 2022 ; Prusaczyk and Hodson, 2018 ). Given their powerful and robust effect, it is crucial to gather additional empirical evidence to elucidate the distinct contribution of psychology to attitudes toward abortion, while considering the influence of political ideology and religious beliefs. Additionally, when describing attitudes toward abortion, the dichotomization of “pro-choice” and “pro-life” have been widely used for decades. However, some studies have criticized that the dichotomization oversimplified attitudes toward abortion (Hunt, 2019 ; Osborne et al., 2022 ; Rye and Underhill, 2020 ). That is, people’s views on abortion vary across different scenarios and reasons. For instance, people showed less support toward abortion with elective reasons than with traumatic reasons (Hoffmann and Johnson, 2005 ). With confirmatory analysis, Osborne et al. ( 2022 ) derived two types of abortion: traumatic (e.g., pregnancy due to rape) vs. elective (e.g., the woman does not want the child anymore). Building on prior research, the current study aims exploring potential variations in attitudes across different abortion reasons. Furthermore, we also intend to examine whether the psychological factors described above have varying associations with different types of abortion.

Participants

The study was approved by IRB before data collection. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk) on October 20th, 2022. To be eligible for the study, participants must be an adult, a U.S. citizen, and have an approval rating greater than 98% in mTurk. A total of 300 participants were enrolled into the study. Each participant received $3 for compensation. Six participants did not complete at least 80% of the items and were removed from the study. Thus, the effective sample size was 294. Demographics are presented in the Results section.

Materials and procedures

Participants took an online survey developed by Qualtrics. Our study did not set a specific time restriction. Across 294 participants, the average survey completion time was 682.8 s (SD = 286.6 s). The median completion time was 595.0 s (IQR = 344.8 s). The following questionnaires were completed.

Attitudes toward abortion

Hoffmann and Johnson ( 2005 ) and Osborne et al. ( 2022 ) analyzed attitudes toward abortion with six different scenarios (scenarios a-f below) that were measured by the U.S. General Social Survey. We further added an additional item regarding underage pregnancy for two reasons. First, compared to other Western industrialized nations, the U.S. has historically had a higher rate of underage pregnancies. Additionally, underage pregnant individuals tended to have a higher likelihood of seeking abortions compared to their older counterparts (Lantos et al., 2022 ; Kearney and Levine, 2012 ; Sedgh et al., 2015 ). Second, underage pregnancy is linked to various adverse outcomes, such as increased risk during childbirth, heightened stress and depression, disruptions in education, and financial challenges (Eliner et al., 2022 ; Hodgkinson et al., 2014 ; Kearney and Levine, 2012 ). Given the significance and prevalence of underage pregnancy, we chose to include it as a scenario to understand the public’s perception. Additionally, we understood that people might feel conflict or uncertain toward one or more scenarios. Hence, instead of using binary response (yes/no format) adopted in the U.S. General Social Survey, we employed a 1 to 7 Likert scale for each scenario, with a higher score indicating stronger support for a pregnant woman to obtain legal abortion.

The seven scenarios in the present study included: (a) there is a strong chance of serious defect in the baby; (b) the woman’s own health is seriously endangered by the pregnancy; (c) the woman became pregnant as a result of rape; (d) the woman is married and does not want any more children; (e) the family has a very low income and cannot afford any more children; (f) the woman is not married and does not want to marry the man; and (g) the woman is underage.

Following the wording used to measure empathy in Pfattheicher et al. ( 2020 ), we developed six items to measure the empathy toward the pregnant woman and unborn or fetus, respectively. The scale of empathy toward pregnant woman included: (a) I am very concerned about the pregnant woman who may lose access to legal abortion; (b) I feel compassion for the pregnant women who may lose access to legal abortion; and (c) I am quite moved by the pregnant women who may lose access to legal abortion. The scale of empathy toward unborn included: (a) I am very concerned about the fetus or unborn child; (b) I feel compassion for the fetus or unborn child; and (c) I am quite moved by the fetus or unborn child. Participants rated each item on a five-point Likert scale, with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree. Thus, a higher score demonstrated stronger empathy toward the target. The Cronbach’s α for the scale of toward pregnant woman was 0.90 in the present study. The Cronbach’s α for the scale of toward unborn was 0.92.

The need for cognition scale (NFC, Cacioppo et al., 1984 ) intends to measure the tendency to engage into deep thinking. It has 18 items, such as “I only think as hard as I have to” and “I find satisfaction in deliberating hard and for long hours”. Participants rated each item on a five-point Likert scale, with a higher score indicating a greater tendency to enjoy deep thinking. In the present study, the reliability of this scale was 0.93.

The present study adopted Levenson multidimensional locus of control scale (Levenson, 1981 ). Across 24 items, this scale measures three dimensions of locus of control: internality (sample item: Whether or not I get to be a leader depends mostly on my ability); powerful others (sample item: I feel like what happens in my life is mostly determined by powerful people); and chance (sample item: To a great extent my life is controlled by accidental happenings). In the present study, participants rated each item on a 1 to 6 Likert scale, with a higher score indicating a stronger belief that fate was controlled by self, powerful others, or chance. The Cronbach’s α for the subscales of internality, powerful others, and chance was 0.84, 0.91, and 0.93, respectively. As shown below, there was a high agreement between powerful others and chance subscales ( r = 0.87, p < 0.001). Hence, we combined these two subscales to form an external locus of control composite.

Demographics

After completing the scales described above, participants were asked to report their demographic information including race, age, gender, education, annual household income, current relationship status, abortion experience, religious belief, and political ideology. Gender was coded with 1 = male, 2 = female, and 3 = other. Race was coded with 1 = White or Caucasian, 2 = Hispanic or Latinx, 3 = Black or African American, 4 = Asian or Asian American, and 5 = Other. Education was coded with six levels: 1 = Less than high school graduate, 2 = High school graduate or equivalent, 3 = Some college or associate degree, 4 = Bachelor’s degree, 5 = Master’s degree, 6 = Doctoral degree. Annual household income was categorized into 13 levels and ranged between under $9,999 and above $120,000 with increments of $9,999. Current relationship status was coded into six levels: 1 = single and not dating, 2 = single but in a relationship, 3 = married, 4 = divorced, 5 = widowed, 6 = other. For abortion experience participants were asked “For any reason, have you had an abortion?”. For this question, the answer was coded with 1 = yes and 2 = no.

Religious belief was measured with three items. The first item asked “How often do you attend religious services?” Participants selected one option out of the following: 1 = never, 2 = a few times per year, 3 = once a month, 4 = 2–3 times a month, 5 = once a week or more. The second item asked “How important is religion to you personally?” Participants rated this question on a five-point Likert point, with 5 being most important. The third question asked “How would you describe your religious denomination”. The options included 1 = Christian, 2 = Islam, 3 = Judaism, 4 = Buddhism, 5 = Hinduism, 6 = other or atheism. In the present study, the first two items were highly correlated ( r = 0.77, p < 0.001). Following Hunt ( 2019 ), we combined the two items to form a general religiosity composite, with a higher score indicating a stronger religious belief.

Political ideology was measured with two items: (a) Generally, how would you describe your views on most social political issues (e.g., education, religious freedom, death penalty, gender issues, etc.)? and (b) Generally, how would you describe your views on most economic political issues (e.g., minimum wage, taxes, welfare programs, etc.)? Participants rated each item with a five-point Likert scale, with 1 = strongly conservative 2 = conservative 3 = moderate 4 = liberal 5 = strongly liberal. We found a strong correlation between the two political ideology items, r = 0.76, p < 0.001. Hence, we combined the two items to form a general political ideology composite.

SPSS 24.0 was employed to perform all the analyses. Across 294 participants, age ranged from 21 to 79, with a mean of 40.4 and a standard deviation of 12.4. Table 1 displays the descriptive statistics for the variables of gender, race, education, annual household income, current relationship status, religious denomination, and abortion experience.

Table 2 presents the descriptive statistics of attitudes toward abortion in different scenarios, religious belief, political ideology, and the scores of the psychological scales. Similar to the results obtained from the large-scale surveys in the U.S. and New Zealand (Osborne et al., 2022 ), the support toward abortion was strong (neutral = 4) across all scenarios.

To examine the structure of attitudes toward abortion in different scenarios, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with a Varimax orthogonal rotation was performed on all seven scenarios. With eigenvalue ≥ 1 as the threshold, two components were generated, accounting for 81.34% of the variability. Table 3 presents the PCA results. As shown, we obtained two distinct components. The first one included the scenarios of baby defection, pregnant woman’s health being endangered, pregnancy caused by rape, and underage pregnancy. The second component included the scenarios of not wanting the child, low income, and not wanting to marry. Such a differentiation between the two components was consistent with the notion in Osborne et al. ( 2022 ). Following this paper and the face validity of the scenarios, we labeled the two components traumatic abortion and elective abortion, respectively. Accordingly, we also computed a composite score for each component by averaging the corresponding items. In line with previous research (Hoffmann and Johnson, 2005 ), the support was significantly stronger toward the traumatic abortion (mean = 5.84, SD = 1.24) than the elective abortion (mean = 4.94, SD = 1.74), t (293) = 11.51, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.67.

Table 4 presents the zero-order correlations between attitudes toward traumatic and elective abortions, demographics, and scores of the psychological factors. Consistent with the findings from past research (e.g., Hess and Rueb, 2005 ; Holman et al., 2020 ), a stronger religious belief was negatively related to the support toward both types of abortions. A stronger liberal ideology was positively related to the support toward both types of abortions. Additionally, empathy toward the pregnant woman was positively associated with the support toward both types of abortions whereas empathy toward unborn or fetus had an opposite effect. Based on the zero-order correlation, we did not find a significant relationship between internal locus of control and attitudes toward either type of abortion. The external locus of control (either powerful others or chance), on the other hand, was positively related to the support toward elective but not traumatic abortion. As there was a high agreement between the two external locus of control subscales ( r = 0.87, p < 0.001), we formed a general external locus of control composite by averaging the two items in the following regressions. Finally, need for cognition was positively related to attitudes toward elective abortion but not traumatic abortion.

While the zero-order correlations were informative, we were mindful that the Type I error might be greatly inflated due to a vast amount of repeated testing. Moreover, one goal of the study was to examine the role of psychological factors in the presence of religious belief and political ideology. Thus, we performed a hierarchical linear regression on each type of abortion, with age, gender, income, and education in the first block, religious belief and political ideology in the second block, and psychological factors in the third block. We separated the regression between the two types of abortion because the role of predictors might vary. This approach was also employed in Osborne et al. ( 2022 ). Table 5 exhibits the regression results.

As shown in Table 5 , the demographic variables of age, gender, education, and income did not account for a significant portion of the variability in attitudes toward either type of abortion. The present study added to the literature that there might not necessarily be a difference in attitudes toward abortion between males and females (Bilewicz et al., 2017 ; Jelen and Wilcox, 1997 ). By contrast, in the second block, religious belief and political ideology collectively explained a sizable portion of the variability in attitudes toward both types of abortion. In block 3, in the presence of demographic variables including religious belief and political ideology, psychological factors could still account for a significant portion of the variability.

Looking at the individual psychological predictors (for more detailed interpretations please refer to the discussion part), consistent with our hypothesis, empathy toward the pregnant woman was positively associated with the support toward both types of abortion. By contrast, empathy toward the unborn or fetus was negatively associated the support toward abortion. For the factor of locus of control, the internal locus of control was not related to any type of abortion attitudes when zero-order correlation was used (Table 4 ); yet it was positively related to abortion attitudes after all other predictors were taken into account, indicating a suppressing effect. Upon further examination, we identified two suppressors: religious belief and empathy toward the unborn. After removing these two variables, internal locus of control was no longer significant. The observed pattern reflected our previous prediction, indicating that the role of internal locus of control could be complicated by religious beliefs. External locus of control, on the other hand, was positively correlated with the support toward elective abortion. Similarly, need for cognition (NFC) also had a positive relationship with the support toward elective abortion. Neither external locus of control nor NFC had a significant correlation with attituded toward traumatic abortion. Hence, our hypotheses regarding external locus of control and NFC were partially supported. We detailed out interpretation and discussion of the results below.

The present study aimed to provide empirical evidence for the correlations between psychological factors and attitudes toward abortion. As introduced earlier, while it is common to find the involvement of psychology in everyday life attitudes and preferences, attitudes toward abortion are unique and drastically different. Given its unique nature, it lacks empirical evidence regarding whether psychological factors that interplay with attitudes in other areas still apply and, if so, in what capacity they do so. Past research has primarily focused on the role of religious belief and political ideology. Our study demonstrated a substantial involvement ( R 2 change = 0.27 and 0.24 for traumatic and elective abortion, respectively) of the psychological factors, after controlling for religious belief and political ideology. More importantly, these effects were comparable to the variability accounted for by religious belief and political ideology combined, particularly in the elective abortion category. The results highlighted the influential role of psychological factors in shaping attitudes toward abortion.

Additionally, past research has shown the interconnection between psychology and the public’s attitudes toward major societal events. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, while the perception of mask-wearing and/or social distancing was highly politicized, studies found that attitudes toward these preventative measures to be related to thinking style, self-control, numeracy, and working memory capacity (Steffen and Cheng, 2023 ; Xie et al., 2020 ; Xu and Cheng, 2021 ). In line with this, our study further underscored the significant influence of psychology on another pressing societal topic: abortion. In the sections below, we detail our findings and relevant implications. We are fully aware that our study was preliminary and hope it could serve as a starting point for future research and practice. We also acknowledge the limitations of our study and address them at the end.

Some past studies on empathy and abortion only considered the empathy toward the pregnant woman (e.g., Brown et al., 2022 ; Homaifar et al., 2017 ; Hunt, 2019 ; Whitaker et al., 2015 ). The present study identified two types of empathy when dealing abortion: empathy toward the pregnant woman and empathy toward the unborn. In the presence of each other, we found that greater empathy toward the pregnant woman was associated with more support toward abortion, whereas greater empathy toward the unborn or fetus was associated with less support toward abortion. Such a pattern suggested that empathy might be a source of conflict feeling. That is, when considering abortion, concerns and care toward pregnant woman and unborn could coexist, potentially leading to conflict and dilemma when people thought about abortion. While the present study examined the public’s attitudes toward abortion with a diverse sample, pregnant women might have a similar pattern of empathy and hence feel conflict and dilemma when thinking about abortion. To cope with such a conflict, it might be beneficial for a counselor to acknowledge conflicting emotions that arise from empathizing with both the unborn and the pregnant individual. Moreover, the counselor could guide the client through the process of reconciling these emotions to alleviate feelings of isolation or confusion the client may experience. Future research in the realms of mental health and counseling should consider integrating these dual empathy perspectives and empirically assess the efficacy of such therapeutic interventions.

Additionally, Hunt ( 2019 ) did not find a significant influence of empathy on abortion attitudes change when participants were exposed to testimonial videos featuring pregnant women discussing the legal obstacles they faced. The disparity between Hunt’s ( 2019 ) findings and our own could potentially be attributed to the inherent stability and longstanding nature of abortion attitudes. Research has found that people’s views on abortion tends to be stable over time (Jelen and Wilcox, 2003 ; Pew Research Center, 2022 ). As a result, it is possible that pre-existing empathy, rather than empathy induced temporarily, was the factor correlated with individuals’ perception and consideration of abortion. Our findings were consistent with this possibility. Together, our findings supported H1a to H1c. Moreover, our study shed more light on empathy by showing its association with distinct views on abortion. The results suggest that future research could investigate how different types of empathy are formed and how they influence the shaping and persuasion of abortion attitudes.

Through qualitative interviews, Sundstrom et al. ( 2018 ) unveiled individual differences in the locus of control when discussing opinions on abortion. However, these interviews might not have fully captured the interplay between internal and external locus of control and other factors involved attitudes toward abortion. To fill the gap, our study employed a quantitative approach to delve deeper into how locus of control correlated with abortion attitudes. Consistent with Levenson ( 1981 ) and Reknes et al. ( 2019 ), we found that the constructs internal locus of control and external locus of control were differentiated but not unidimensional. For internal locus of control, interestingly, we found a suppressing effect. As discussed earlier, the role of internal locus of control in abortion attitudes might be complicated. That is, on the one hand, by face validity, the internal locus of control well aligned with the concept of “my body, my choice” (Sundstrom et al., 2018 ). On the other hand, in line with past research (Coursey et al., 2013 ; Falkowski, 2000 ; Iles-Caven et al., 2020 ), our study found that internal locus of control was positively related to religious belief. Furthermore, as shown in Table 4 , internal locus of control was also positively related to the empathy toward the unborn, and such a relationship was significantly mediated by religious belief (mediation effect = 0.21, SE = 0.5, 95% CI = [0.13, 0.31]). Therefore, when using zero-order correlation, the effect of internal locus of control might be neutralized by the two opposite parts (“my body, my choice” vs. religious belief) discussed above. By contrast, in regression, the “my body, my choice” part stood out because the religiosity part was partialled out by the variables of religious belief and empathy toward the unborn.

In addition to internal locus of control, we also discovered that external locus of control was involved in abortion attitudes. Specifically, we found a positive relationship between external locus of control and support toward elective abortion (H2 was partially supported). Past research has found that locus of control is related to attribution (Falkowski, 2000 ; Reknes et al., 2019 ). Thus, our finding was in line with the notion that those with a greater level of external locus of control might be more likely to attribute unwanted pregnancy to external reasons (not personal responsibility), and hence showed more support toward abortion.

Our findings regarding locus of control suggest that individuals might simultaneously believe in personal autonomy (“my body, my choice”) while also feeling that certain life events, like unwanted pregnancies, are influenced by external factors beyond their control. This is particularly true when thinking about elective abortion. Education and counseling practices might be designed to reflect this duality. For example, materials and discussions could simultaneously emphasize the importance of personal choices and responsibilities, while also exploring societal, cultural, or circumstantial factors that might influence abortion decision. Incorporating both perspectives would allow to create a supportive environment where individuals feel seen and acknowledged in their complexities.

As introduced earlier, past research on the relationship between thinking style and abortion attitudes was inconclusive. To clarify the relationship, the present study adopted the validated need for cognition scale. Need for cognition has demonstrated its involvement in consequential events, such as political elections and the adoption of preventive measures during the Covid-19 pandemic (Sohlberg, 2019 ; Xu and Cheng, 2021 ). In the present study, we discovered that need for cognition was positively related to the support toward elective abortion. Such a finding was consistent with the notion that need for cognition was negatively related to stereotypes (Crawford and Skowronski, 1998 ; Curşeu and de Jong, 2017 ). Additionally, as need for cognition drives individuals to seek and update knowledge, our result was also in line with the finding that gaining knowledge about abortion led to more positive view on abortion (Hunt, 2019 ; Mollen et al., 2018 ). Our study implied that future research could empirically evaluate if indeed abortion knowledge mediates the relationship between need for cognition and abortion attitudes.

It is worth noting that the present study also clarified the role of need for cognition in attitudes toward abortion by examining a potential artifact. Specifically, the observed positive relationship between need for cognition and support for abortion might be an artifact, given that liberal ideology is positively correlated with both abortion attitudes and need for cognition (Young et al., 2019 ). However, as shown in our regression, the relationship between need for cognition and elective abortion remained significant in the presence of other variables, including political ideology. Thus, the finding suggested that at least part of the relationship between need for cognition and attitude toward abortion was unique and not driven by political ideology.

Our findings related to need for cognition had an implication on abortion-related education. As discussed earlier, having adequate knowledge about abortion could facilitate the support for making informed decisions. As need for cognition was found to be related to openness and motivation to seek and update information (Russo et al., 2022 ), our finding suggested that cultivating willingness to engage into critical thinking might be beneficial for education on abortion and reproductive rights. While we are fully aware that correlation does not equate to causation, our study still offers a starting point for future research and practice on abortion-related education.

Traumatic abortion vs. elective abortion

While some researchers argued that the dichotomization of “pro-choice” and “pro-life” was oversimplified, to date, only two studies have empirically examined attitude variation between different abortion scenarios (Hoffmann and Johnson, 2005 ; Osborne et al., 2022 ). Both studies demonstrated that public views on abortion can be grouped into two categories: traumatic and elective. Our research not only replicated these findings but also introduced two significant advancements. First, we incorporated a scenario addressing underage pregnancy, given its high prevalence and significance. Secondly, instead of a binary response, we employed a 7-point Likert scale, allowing us to more accurately capture potential conflicting attitudes among participants.

Furthermore, our findings revealed that the roles of external locus of control and need for cognition varied in relation to attitudes toward the two types of abortion. Interestingly, we observed that neither of these variables significantly related to attitudes toward traumatic abortion, as indicated by both zero-order correlation and regression analyses. Conceptually, the scenarios of traumatic abortion (e.g., pregnancy caused by rape; mother life endangered) tend to be more extreme and emergent than the scenarios of elective abortion. Hence, there might be less room for psychological factors, such as thinking or attribution, to function in traumatic abortion than in elective abortion. Our interpretation was also consistent with the statistical pattern between the two abortions. That is, compared to elective abortion, the standard deviation of traumatic abortion was smaller. Additionally, there were more participants rated seven on the Likert scale in the scenarios of traumatic abortion (29.6%) than in the scenarios of elective abortion (18%). Despite the difference between the two types of abortion, it is essential to acknowledge that elective abortion does not imply a stress-free experience. Both traumatic and elective abortions involve significant levels of stress and emotional challenges. While traumatic abortion scenarios can be considered more extreme, it is crucial to recognize that individuals undergoing elective abortion may also experience considerable emotional distress.

Taken together, with concrete evidence, our study demonstrated that the public’s attitude toward abortion depended on abortion reasons. Our study also implied that future research should focus on attitudes toward specific abortion scenarios rather than a holistic concept of abortion. Furthermore, the differentiation between the traumatic and elective abortions suggested the limitation and potential ineffectiveness of one-size-fits-all legislative solutions. Given the varying and often conflicting attitudes that people harbor, it would be reasonable for legislative frameworks to be flexible, adaptive, and cognizant of the different circumstances surrounding abortion. This will not only be more reflective of public opinions but also more supportive of individuals who undergo different types of abortion experiences, each of which carries its own set of emotional and psychological challenges.

Expanding findings with a quantitative approach

Some past studies employed a qualitive approach when dealing with attitudes toward abortion (e.g., Dozier et al., 2020 ; Sundstrom et al., 2018 ; Valdez et al., 2022 ; Woodruff et al., 2018 ). These investigations have provided insights and served as inspirations for our own research. However, the relationship between abortion attitudes and pertinent factors may remain somewhat opaque. This is particularly true when considering the intricate interconnectedness among these factors. The present study demonstrated that findings from qualitative studies could be extended and enriched with a quantitative approach. For instance, we utilized quantitative scales to measure empathy toward the unborn —a variable that was previously identified through interviews in the study by Dozier et al. ( 2020 ). Moreover, we further exhibited the role of empathy toward the unborn when statistically controlled other variables, including empathy toward the pregnant. Similarly, the role of internal locus of control was revealed in interviews in Sundstrom et al. ( 2018 ). With validated scales, we exhibited the correlation with internal locus of control in both types of abortion. Furthermore, by detecting and interpreting a suppressing effect, we showed the interplay between internal locus of control, religious belief, and attitude toward abortion. Thus, our study implied that using quantitative scales and analyses was a viable approach to examine attitude toward abortion and could deepen the understanding of relevant factors.

Limitations and future directions

Despite the contributions, limitations should be acknowledged as well. First and foremost, we believe our study was still in the explorative stage. The specific psychological factors tested in the present study were not exhaustive and not theoretically driven. We hope the present study could provide initial empirical evidence to show the sophisticated role of psychology in attitudes toward abortion. Future studies could use a more theoretical driven approach to examine the specific psychological involvement in abortion attitudes. For example, given the correlation between need for cognition and attitudes toward abortion, future research could further elucidate the role of thinking style in attitudes toward abortion by incorporating the Dual-Process Theory (Evans, 2008 ). The Dual-Process Theory posits that humans have two distinct systems of information processing: System 1, which is intuitive, automatic, and fast; and System 2, which is deliberate, analytical, and slower. By examining the interplay between these two systems, researchers might gain insights into how intuitive emotional responses versus more deliberate cognitive analyses influence individuals’ attitudes toward abortion. For instance, are individuals who predominantly rely on System 1 more swayed by emotive narratives or imagery related to abortion?

Second, when analyzing and discussing the results, we proposed several possible underlying mechanisms that might elucidate the relationships observed. To illustrate, we employed the concept of attribution to shed light on the role of an external locus of control, positing that individuals with a strong external locus might attribute abortion decisions to external factors or circumstances rather than personal choices. Furthermore, we suggested that the observed positive relationship between the need for cognition and abortion attitudes might be mediated through abortion knowledge. This implies that individuals with a higher need for cognition could potentially seek out more information on abortion, leading to more informed attitudes. However, while these interpretations offer potential insights, we recognize their speculative nature. It’s crucial to emphasize that our proposed mechanisms require rigorous empirical testing for validation. For example, it would be of interest to test whether indeed, gaining various types of abortion knowledge improves views of abortion.

Third, as described above, we strived to show how our findings could be potentially used in abortion-related counseling. However, we acknowledge that our study is explorative but not counseling focused. Therefore, while we believe our findings offer meaningful implications, we caution against over-extrapolating their direct applicability to counseling contexts. Future research could delve into empirically investigating how psychological factors, such as varying empathy types and loci of control, could be utilized to alleviate negative feelings associated with abortion decisions. Additionally, understanding how various psychological factors interact with cultural and social norms could further help tailor counseling approaches.

Fourth, the present study did not include an attention check item. We believe the quality of our survey could have been improved had we included one or more attention check items. However, the reliabilities of our scales were relatively high (ranged from 0.84 to 0.93). Additionally, we also replicated some major findings from previous research (e.g., the associations between attitudes toward abortion and religious belief and political ideology). Thus, we believe that overall, inattention did not affect the quality of our data. Future online surveys could consider using attention check items for quality control.

In conclusion, the present study demonstrates the unique contribution of empathy, locus of control, and need for cognition to how people perceived abortion in different scenarios. The findings suggests that attitudes toward complex moral issues like abortion are shaped by individual psychological traits and cognitive needs, in addition to societal, religious, and cultural norms. Future research could use our study as a starting point to expand on these findings, exploring other psychological traits and cognitive processes that may similarly affect perceptions of abortion and other controversial subjects.

Data availability

Data included in this project may be found in the online repository, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/E5AB5R .

Batson CD, Polycarpou MP, Harmon-Jones E, Imhoff HI, Mitchener EC, Highberger L et al. (1997) Empathy and attitudes: can feeling for a member of a stigmatized group improve feelings toward the group? J Person Soc Psychol 72(1):105–118

Article CAS Google Scholar

Bilewicz M, Mikołajczak G, Babińska M (2017) Speaking about the preborn. How specific terms used in the abortion debate reflect attitudes and (de)mentalization. Person Individ Differ 111:256–262

Article Google Scholar

Brown L, Swiezy S, McKinzie A, Komanapalli S, Bernard C (2022) Evaluation of family planning and abortion education in preclinical curriculum at a large midwestern medical school. Heliyon 8(7):e09894. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09894

Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Cacioppo JT, Petty RE, Kao CF (1984) The efficient assessment of need for cognition. J Person Assess 48(3):306–307. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4803_13

Comrey AL, Lee HB (1992) A first course in factor analysis (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc

Coursey LE, Kenworthy JB, Jones JR (2013) A meta-analysis of the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and locus of control. Arch Psychol Relig 35:347–368. https://doi.org/10.1163/15736121-12341268

Crawford MT, Skowronski JJ (1998) When motivated thought leads to heightened bias: high need for cognition can enhance the impact of stereotypes on memory. Person Soc Psycholo Bull 24(10):1075–1088. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672982410005

Curşeu PL, de Jong JP (2017) Bridging social circles: need for cognition, prejudicial judgments, and personal social network characteristics. Front Psychol 8:1251. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01251

Ding D, Chen Y, Lai J, Chen X, Han M, Zhang X (2020) Belief bias effect in older adults: roles of working memory and need for cognition. Front Psychol 10:2940. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02940

Dozier JL, Hennink M, Mosley E, Narasimhan S, Pringle J, Clarke L, Blevins J, James-Portis L, Keithan R, Hall KS, Rice WS (2020) Abortion attitudes, religious and moral beliefs, and pastoral care among Protestant religious leaders in Georgia. PloS one 15(7):e0235971. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235971

Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Eliner Y, Gulersen M, Kasar A, Lenchner E, Grünebaum A, Chervenak FA, Bornstein E (2022) Maternal and neonatal complications in teen pregnancies: a comprehensive study of 661,062 patients. J Adolesc Health 70(6):922–927. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.12.014

Article PubMed Google Scholar

Embree RA (1998) Attitudes toward elective abortion: preliminary evidence of validity for the personal beliefs scale. Psychol Rep 82(3 Pt 2):1267–1281. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1998.82.3c.1267

Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar

Evans JSTBT (2008) Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgment and social cognition. Ann Rev Psychol 59:255–278. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093629

Falkowski CK (2000) Locus of control, religious values, work values and social policy choices. Diss Abstracts Int. Sec B: Sci Eng 61:1694

Google Scholar

Felix., M., Sobel, L., & Salganicoff, A. (2023). Legal challenges to state abortion bans since the dobbs decision. Kaiser Family Foundation . Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/legal-challenges-to-state-abortion-bans-since-the-dobbs-decision/

Fischhoff B, Broomell SB (2020) Judgment and decision making. Ann Rev Psychol 71:331–355

Foster DG, Gould H, Taylor J, Weitz TA (2012) Attitudes and decision making among women seeking abortions at one U.S. clinic. Perspect Sexual Reprod Health 44(2):117–124. https://doi.org/10.1363/4411712

Hess JA, Rueb JD (2005) Attitudes toward abortion, religion, and party affiliation among college students. Curr Psychol 24(1):24–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-005-1002-0

Hill A (2004) The relationship between attitudes about abortion and cognitive complexity. UW-J Undergrad Res VII:1–6

ADS Google Scholar

Hodgkinson S, Beers L, Southammakosane C, Lewin A (2014) Addressing the mental health needs of pregnant and parenting adolescents. Pediatrics 133(1):114–122. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2013-0927

Hoffmann JP, Johnson SM (2005) Attitudes toward abortion among religious traditions in the United States: change or continuity. Soc Relig 66(2):161–182. https://doi.org/10.2307/4153084

Holman M, Podrazik E, Silber Mohamed H (2020) Choosing choice: how gender and religiosity shape abortion attitudes among Latinos. J Race Ethnicity Politics 5(2):384–411. https://doi.org/10.1017/%20rep.2019.51

Homaifar N, Freedman L, French V (2017) “She’s on her own”: a thematic analysis of clinicians’ comments on abortion referral. Contraception 95(5):470–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2017.01.007

Hunt ME (2019) Shifting Abortion Attitudes using an Empathy-based Media Intervention: a randomized controlled study. graduate theses and dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3256

Jelen TG (2017) Public attitudes toward abortion and LGBTQ issues: a dynamic analysis of region and partisanship. SAGE Open 7(1):1–6. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017697362

Jelen TG, Wilcox C (1997) Attitudes toward abortion in Poland and the United States. Soc Sci Q 78(4):907–921

Jelen TG, Wilcox C (2003) Causes and consequences of public attitudes toward abortion: a review and research agenda. Political Res Q 56(4):489–500. https://doi.org/10.2307/3219809

Kearney MS, Levine PB (2012) Why is the teen birth rate in the United States so high and why does it matter. J Econ Perspect 26(2):141–166. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.26.2.141

Kim-Prieto C, Diener E, Tamir M, Scollon C, Diener M (2005) Integrating the diverse definitions of happiness: a time-sequential framework of subjective well-being. J Happiness Studies 6(3):261–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-005-7226-8

Klimecki O, Mayer S, Jusyte A et al. (2016) Empathy promotes altruistic behavior in economic interactions. Sci Rep 6:31961. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep31961

Article ADS CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Klimecki OM (2019) The role of empathy and compassion in conflict resolution. Emotion Rev 11(4):310–325

Krause N, Hayward RD (2013) Prayer beliefs and change in life satisfaction over time. J Relig Health 52:674–694

Lantos, H., Pliskin, E., Wildsmith, E., & Manlove, J. (2022). State-level abortion restrictions will negatively impact teens and children. Child Trend s. Retrieved from https://www.childtrends.org/blog/state-level-abortion-restrictions-will-negatively-impact-teens-and-children

Levenson H (1981) Differentiating among internality, powerful others, and chance. In: Lefcourt HM (Ed.) Research with the Locus of Control Construct. Academic Press, New York, NY, p 15–63. 10.1016/b978-0-12-443201-7.50006-3

Iles-Caven Y, Gregory S, Ellis G, Golding J, Nowicki S (2020) The relationship between locus of control and religious behavior and beliefs in a large population of parents: an observational study. Front Psychol 11:1462. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01462

Marton G, Pizzoli SFM, Vergani L, Mazzocco K, Monzani D, Bailo L, Pancani L, Pravettoni G (2021) Patients’ health locus of control and preferences about the role that they want to play in the medical decision-making process. Psychol Health Med 26(2):260–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2020.1748211

Mollen D, Hargons C, Klann EM, Mosley DV (2018) Abortion knowledge and attitudes among psychologists and graduate students. Counseling Psychol 46(6):738–760. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000018795296

Moudatsou M, Stavropoulou A, Philalithis A, Koukouli S (2020) The role of empathy in health and social care professionals. Healthcare 8(1):26. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8010026

Osborne D, Huang Y, Overall NC, Sutton RM, Petterson A, Douglas KM, Davies PG, Sibley CG (2022) Abortion attitudes: an overview of demographic and ideological differences. Political Psychol 43:29–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12803

Pew Research Center. (2022, May 17). Public Opinion on Abortion. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/

Pfattheicher S, Nockur L, Böhm R, Sassenrath C, Petersen MB (2020) The emotional path to action: empathy promotes physical distancing and wearing of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychol Sci 31(11):1363–1373. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620964422

Prusaczyk E, Hodson G (2018) Left-right differences in abortion policy support in America: clarifying the role of sex and sexism in a nationally representative 2016 sample. Person Individual Differ 127:22–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.01.030

Reknes I, Visockaite G, Liefooghe A, Lovakov A, Einarsen SV (2019) Locus of control moderates the relationship between exposure to bullying behaviors and psychological strain. Front Psychol 10:446169. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01323

Richardson M, Abraham C, Bond R (2012) Psychological correlates of university students’ academic performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychol Bull 138(2):353–387. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026838

Russo D, Masegosa AR, Stol KJ (2022) From anecdote to evidence: the relationship between personality and need for cognition of developers. Empir Software Eng 27:71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-021-10106-1

Rye BJ, Underhill A (2020) Pro-choice and pro-life are not enough: an investigation of abortion attitudes as a function of abortion prototypes. Sexuality Culture 24:1829–1851. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09723-7

Saad, L. (2023, June 21). Abortion remains a potent issue for pro-choice voters. Gallup . Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/507527/abortion-remains-potent-issue-pro-choice-voters.aspx

Sedgh G, Finer LB, Bankole A, Eilers MA, Singh S (2015) Adolescent pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates across countries: levels and recent trends. J Adolesc Health 56(2):223–30

Scott J (1989) Conflicting beliefs about abortion: legal approval and moral doubts. Soc Psychol Q 52(4):319–326. https://doi.org/10.2307/2786995

Shafir E, LeBoeuf RA (2002) Rationality. Ann Rev Psychol 53(1):491–517. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135213

Sohlberg J (2019) Elections are (not) exciting: need for cognition and electoral behaviour. Scand Political Stud 42(2):138–150. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9477.12138

Steffen J, Cheng J (2023) The influence of gain-loss framing and its interaction with political ideology on social distancing and mask wearing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Curr Psychol 42(10):8028–8038. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02148-x

Sundstrom B, Szabo C, Dempsey A (2018) “My Body. My Choice”: a qualitative study of the influence of trust and locus of control on postpartum contraceptive choice. J Health Commun 23(2):162–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2017.1421728

Valdez D, Jozkowski KN, Haus K et al. (2022) Assessing rigid modes of thinking in self-declared abortion ideology: natural language processing insights from an online pilot qualitative study on abortion attitudes. Pilot Feasib Stud 8:127. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-022-01078-0

Verplanken B, Hazenberg PT, Palenéwen GR (1992) Need for cognition and external information search effort. J Res Person 26(2):128–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(92)90049-A

Whitaker AK, Quinn MT, Martins SL, Tomlinson AN, Woodhams EJ, Gilliam M (2015) Motivational interviewing to improve postabortion contraceptive uptake by young women: development and feasibility of a counseling intervention. Contraception 92(4):323–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2015.06.015

Woodruff K, Biggs MA, Gould H, Foster DG (2018) Attitudes toward abortion after receiving vs. being denied an abortion in the USA. Sexuality Res Soc Policy 15(4):452–463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0325-1

Xie W, Campbell S, Zhang W (2020) Working memory capacity predicts individual differences in social distancing compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. PNAS 117(30):17667–17674

Article ADS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Xu P, Cheng J (2021) Individual differences in social distancing and mask-wearing in the pandemic of COVID-19: the role of need for cognition, self-control and risk attitude. Person Individual Differ 175:110706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110706

Young DG, Bagozzi BE, Goldring A, Poulsen S, Drouin E (2019) Psychology, political ideology, and humor appreciation: why is satire so liberal. Psychol Popular Media Culture 8(2):134–147. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000157

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, 50614, USA

Jiuqing Cheng & Chloe Thostenson

Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

JC: conceptualization, data curation and analysis, writing, review& editing; PX: conceptualization, writing, review; CT: conceptualization, data curation and analysis, review.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiuqing Cheng .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional review board (IRB 23-0018) at the University of Northern Iowa with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Cheng, J., Xu, P. & Thostenson, C. Psychological traits and public attitudes towards abortion: the role of empathy, locus of control, and need for cognition. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 23 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02487-z

Download citation

Received : 18 July 2023

Accepted : 30 November 2023

Published : 02 January 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02487-z

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Quick links

Explore articles by subject
Guide to authors
Editorial policies

MJC Library & Learning Center
Research Guides
Abortion Research

Start Learning About Your Topic

Create research questions to focus your topic, featured current news, find articles in library databases, find web resources, find books in the library catalog, cite your sources, key search words.

Use the words below to search for useful information in books and articles .

birth control
pro-choice movement
pro-life movement
reproductive rights
Roe v. Wade
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (Dobbs v. Jackson)

Background Reading:

It's important to begin your research learning something about your subject; in fact, you won't be able to create a focused, manageable thesis unless you already know something about your topic.

This step is important so that you will:

Begin building your core knowledge about your topic
Be able to put your topic in context
Create research questions that drive your search for information
Create a list of search terms that will help you find relevant information
Know if the information you’re finding is relevant and useful

If you're working from off campus , you'll be prompted to sign in if you aren't already logged in to your MJC email or Canvas. If you are prompted to sign in, use the same credentials you use for email and Canvas.

Most current background reading

Issues and Controversies: Should Women in the United States Have Access to Abortion? June 2022 article (written after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade) that explores both sides of the abortion debate.
Access World News: Abortion The most recent news and opinion on abortion from US newspapers.

More sources for background information

CQ Researcher Online This link opens in a new window Original, comprehensive reporting and analysis on issues in the news. Check the dates of results to be sure they are sufficiently current.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window Authoritative background reading from specialized encyclopedias (a year or more old, so not good for the latest developments).
Gale In Context: Global Issues This link opens in a new window Best database for exploring the topic from a global point of view.

Choose the questions below that you find most interesting or appropriate for your assignment.

Why is abortion such a controversial issue?
What are the medical arguments for and against abortion?
What are the religious arguments for and against abortion?
What are the political arguments for and against abortion?
What are the cultural arguments for and against abortion?
What is the history of laws concerning abortion?
What are the current laws about abortion?
How are those who oppose access to abortion trying to affect change?
How are those who support access to abortion trying to affect change?
Based on what I have learned from my research, what do I think about the issue of abortion?
State-by-State Abortion Laws Updated regularly by the Guttmacher Institute
What the Data Says About Abortion in the U.S. From the Pew Research Center in June 2022, a look at the most recent available data about abortion from sources other than public opinion surveys.

Latest News on Abortion from Google News

All of these resources are free for MJC students, faculty, & staff.

Gale Databases This link opens in a new window Search over 35 databases simultaneously that cover almost any topic you need to research at MJC. Gale databases include articles previously published in journals, magazines, newspapers, books, and other media outlets.
EBSCOhost Databases This link opens in a new window Search 22 databases simultaneously that cover almost any topic you need to research at MJC. EBSCO databases include articles previously published in journals, magazines, newspapers, books, and other media outlets.
Facts on File Databases This link opens in a new window Facts on File databases include: Issues & Controversies , Issues & Controversies in History , Today's Science , and World News Digest .
MEDLINE Complete This link opens in a new window This database provides access to top-tier biomedical and health journals, making it an essential resource for doctors, nurses, health professionals and researchers engaged in clinical care, public health, and health policy development.
Access World News This link opens in a new window Search the full-text of editions of record for local, regional, and national U.S. newspapers as well as full-text content of key international sources. This is your source for The Modesto Bee from January 1989 to the present. Also includes in-depth special reports and hot topics from around the country. To access The Modesto Bee , limit your search to that publication. more... less... Watch this short video to learn how to find The Modesto Bee .

Browse Featured Web Sites:

American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists Medical information and anti-abortion rights advocacy.
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Use the key term "abortion" in the search box on this site for links to reports and statistics.
Guttmacher Institute Statistics and policy papers with a world-wide focus from a "research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide."
NARAL Pro-Choice America This group advocates for pro-abortion rights legislation. Current information abortion laws in the U.S.
National Right to Life Committee This group advocates for anti-abortion rights legislation in the U.S.

Why Use Books:

Use books to read broad overviews and detailed discussions of your topic. You can also use books to find primary sources , which are often published together in collections.

Where Do I Find Books?

You'll use the library catalog to search for books, ebooks, articles, and more.

What if MJC Doesn't Have What I Need?

If you need materials (books, articles, recordings, videos, etc.) that you cannot find in the library catalog , use our interlibrary loan service .

Your instructor should tell you which citation style they want you to use. Click on the appropriate link below to learn how to format your paper and cite your sources according to a particular style.

Chicago Style
ASA & Other Citation Styles
Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 1:28 PM
URL: https://libguides.mjc.edu/abortion

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 and CC BY-NC 4.0 Licenses .

Abortion Research Paper: Example, Outline, & Topics

The long-standing debate surrounding abortion has many opponents and advocates. Groups known as Pro-Choice and Pro-Life argue which approach is better, with no easy solution in sight. This ethical complexity is what makes abortion a popular topic for argumentative writing. As a student, you need to tackle it appropriately.

The picture shows statistics regarding the legal status of abortion.

If this task sounds daunting, read this guide by our custom-writing experts to get excellent writing tips on handling this assignment. You will also find here:

abortion topics and prompts,
a research paper outline,
a free essay sample.
🤔 Why Is Abortion a Good Topic?
☑️ Research Paper Prompts
👨‍⚕️ Abortion Research Questions
📚 Research Topics
🔬 Before You Start
✍️ Step-by-Step Writing Guide

📋 Abortion Research Paper Example

🔍 references, 🤔 why is abortion a good research topic.

Abortion studies are a vast area of research and analysis. It touches upon numerous domains of life, such as politics, medicine, religion, ethics, and human rights perspectives.

Like gun control or euthanasia, the abortion debate offers no evident answers to what kind of regulation is preferable. According to a recent survey, 61% of US adults are in favor of abortion , while 37% think it should be illegal. The arguments from both sides make sense, and there is no “yes-no” solution.

All this makes investigating the abortion debate a valuable exercise to hone your critical analysis skills. It will teach you to back up your claims with sound evidence while giving credit to counterarguments. Besides, expanding the body of abortion research is beneficial for the American community and women’s rights.

☑️ Abortion Research Paper Prompts

The first step to writing a successful paper is choosing an appropriate topic. Abortion is surrounded by numerous legal, medical, ethical, and social debates. That’s why the choice of ideas is virtually endless.

Don’t know where to start? Check out the prompts and creative titles below.

Should Abortion Be Legal: Research Paper Prompt

You can approach this question from several perspectives. For example, propose a new legal framework for regulating eligibility for abortion. Some states allow the procedure under certain circumstances, such as a threat to a woman’s health. Should it be made legal in less extreme situations, too?

Anti-Abortion Research Paper Prompt

The legal status of abortions is still disputed in many countries. The procedure’s most ardent opponents are Catholic religious groups. In an anti-abortion paper, you may list ethical or faith-based claims. Focus on the right-to-life arguments and give scientific evidence regarding embryo’s rights.

Abortion and Embryonic Stem Cell Research Prompt

Stem cell research is a dubious issue that faces strong opposition from ethical and religious activists. Here are some great ideas for an essay on this topic:

Start by explaining what stem cells are.
Outline the arguments for and against their use in research.
Link this discussion to the status of abortion.

Abortion Law Research Paper Prompt

If you get an abortion-related assignment in your Legal Studies class, it’s better to take a legislative approach to this issue. Here’s what you can do:

Study the evolution of abortion laws in the US or other countries.
Pinpoint legal gaps.
Focus on the laws’ strengths and weaknesses.

Abortion Breast Cancer Research Prompt

Increasing research evidence shows the link between abortion and breast cancer development . Find scholarly articles proving or refuting this idea and formulate a strong argument on this subject. Argue it with credible external evidence.

Abortion Ethics Research Paper Prompt

Here, you can focus on the significance of the discussion’s ethical dimension. People who are against abortion often cite the ethics of killing an embryo. You can discuss this issue by quoting famous thinkers and the latest medical research. Be sure to support your argument with sound evidence.

👨‍⚕️ Questions about Abortion for Research Paper

How does technology reframe the abortion debate?
Is there new ethics of abortion in the 21 st century?
How did the abortion debate progress before the Roe v. Wade decision?
How is the abortion debate currently being shaped on social media?
How do abortion rights advocates conceptualize the meaning of life ?
Can the abortion debate be called a culture war?
What are women’s constitutional abortion rights?
How does abortion reshape the concept of a person?
How does the abortion debate fit in the post-Socialist transition framework of the European community?
Where does the abortion debate stand in the politics of sexuality?

📚 Abortion Topics for Research Paper

The changing legal rhetoric of abortion in the US.
Constructing abortion as a legal problem.
Regendering of the US’ abortion problem.
Evolution of public attitudes to abortion in the US.
Choice vs. coercion in the abortion debate.
Abortion and sin in Catholicism.
Artificial wombs as an innovative solution to the abortion debate.
Religious belief vs. reason in the abortion debate.
Introduction of pregnant women’s perspectives into the abortion debate: dealing with fetal abnormalities.
The role of ultrasound images in the evolution of women’s abortion intentions.

🔬 Research Papers on Abortions: Before You Start

Before discussing how to write an abortion paper, let’s focus on the pre-writing steps necessary for a stellar work. Here are the main points to consider.

The picture explains the difference between qualitative and quantitative research design.

Abortion Research Design

Before you start exploring your topic, you need to choose between a qualitative and quantitative research design:

💬 Qualitative studies focus on words and present the attitudes and subjective meanings assigned to the concept of abortion by respondents.

🧪 Quantitative studies , in turn, focus on numbers and statistics. They analyze objective evidence and avoid subjective interpretations.

Pick a research design based on your research skills and the data you’re planning to analyze:

If you plan to gain insight into people’s opinions, attitudes, and life experiences related to abortion, it’s better to go for an interview and qualitative analysis.
If you have a survey and want to focus on descriptive statistics, it’s better to stick to quantitative methods .

Abortion Research Paper Outline Format

Next, it’s time to choose the format of your paper’s outline. As a rule, students use one of the 3 approaches:

You can learn more about these formats from our article on how to write an outline .

Choosing Headings & Subheadings

A strong title can save your paper, while a poor one can immediately kill the readers’ interest. That’s why we recommend you not to underestimate the importance of formulating an attention-grabbing, exciting heading for your text.

Here are our best tips to make your title and subheadings effective:

A good title needs to be brief. It’s up to 5 words, as a rule. Subheadings can be longer, as they give a more extended explanation of the content.
Don’t be redundant. Make sure the subheadings are not duplicating each other.
Mind the format. For instance, if your paper is in the APA format, you need to use proper font size and indentation. No numbering of headings and subheadings is necessary as in the outline. Ensure the reader understands the hierarchy with the help of heading level distinctions.

Components of an Effective Outline

According to academic writing conventions, a good outline should follow 4 essential principles:

Parallelism . All components of your outline need to have a similar grammatical structure. For example, if you choose infinitives to denote actions, stick to them and don’t mix them with nouns and gerunds.
Coordination . Divide your work into chunks with equal importance. This way, you will allocate as much weight to one point as to all the others. Your outline’s sections of similar hierarchy should have equal significance.
Subordination . The subheadings contained within one heading of a higher order should all be connected to the paper’s title.
Division . The minimum number of subheadings in each outline heading should be 2. If you have only one point under a heading, it’s worth adding another one.

Use this list of principles as a cheat sheet while creating your outline, and you’re sure to end up with well-organized and structured research!

Abortion Research Paper Outline Example

To recap and illustrate everything we’ve just discussed, let’s have a look at this sample abortion outline. We’ve made it in the decimal format following all effective outlining principles—check it out!

History of abortion laws in the USA.
Problem: recent legal changes challenge Roe vs. Wade .
Thesis statement: the right to abortion should be preserved as a constitutional right
The fundamental human right to decide what to do with their body.
Legal abortions are safer.
Fetuses don’t feel pain at the early stages of development.
Abortion is murder.
Fetuses are unborn people who feel pain at later stages.
Abortion causes lifelong psychological trauma for the woman.
Roe vs. Wade is a pro-choice case.
The constitutional right to privacy and bodily integrity.
Conclusion.

✍️ Abortion Research Paper: How to Write

Now, let’s proceed to write the paper itself. We will cover all the steps, starting with introduction writing rules and ending with the body and conclusion essentials.

Abortion Introduction: Research Paper Tips

When you begin writing an abortion paper, it’s vital to introduce the reader to the debate and key terminology. Start by describing a broader issue and steadily narrow the argument to the scope of your paper. The intro typically contains the key figures or facts that would show your topic’s significance.

For example, suppose you plan to discuss the ethical side of abortion. In this case, it’s better to structure the paper like this:

Start by outlining the issue of abortion as a whole.
Introduce the arguments of pro-choice advocates, saying that this side of the debate focuses on the woman’s right to remove the fetus from her body or leave it.
Cite the latest research evidence about fetuses as living organisms, proceeding to debate abortion ethics.
End your introduction with a concise thesis statement .

The picture shows parts of an introduction in an abortion research paper.

Thesis on Abortion for a Research Paper

The final part of your introduction is a thesis—a single claim that formulates your paper’s main idea. Experienced readers and college professors often focus on the thesis statement’s quality to decide whether the text is worth reading further. So, make sure you dedicate enough effort to formulate the abortion research paper thesis well!

Don’t know how to do it? These pro tips will surely help you write a great thesis:

Abortion Research Paper Body

Now, it’s time to proceed to the main body of your paper. It should expand on the main idea in more detail, explaining the details and weighing the evidence for and against your argument.

The secret of effective writing is to go paragraph by paragraph . Your essay’s body will have around 2-5 of them, and the quality of each one determines the value of the whole text.

Here are the 4 easy steps that can help you excel in writing the main part of your essay:

Start each paragraph with a topic sentence. It functions as a mini-thesis statement and communicates the paragraph’s main idea.
Then, expand it with additional facts and evidence. It’s better to back that information with external sources, showing that it’s not your guesswork. Make sure you properly analyze the citations and show how they fit into your broader research.
A paragraph should end with a concise wrap-up. Write a concluding sentence restating the topic sentence or a transition linking to the next section.

Research Papers on Abortions: Conclusion

The conclusion of an abortion paper also plays a major role in the overall impression that your paper will produce. So, how do you make it interesting?

Instead of simply restating the thesis and enumerating your points, it’s better to do the following:

Focus on the broader implications of the issue you’ve just discussed.
Mention your study’s limitations and point out some directions for further research.
It’s also a good idea to include a call to action , which can help create a sense of urgency in the readers.

Abortion Articles for Research Paper & Other Sources

Every research paper ends with “works cited” or a reference page enumerating the sources used for the assignment. A rule of thumb is to cite credible, authoritative publications from governmental organizations and NGOs and academic articles from peer-reviewed journals. These sources will make your research more competent and professional, supporting your viewpoint with objective scientific information.

Here are some databases that can supply top-quality data to back the abortion-related claims in a research paper:

Feel free to check these databases for studies related to your subject. It’s best to conduct preliminary research to see whether your topic has enough supporting evidence. Also, make sure there are plenty of new studies to back your arguments! Abortion is a fast-changing field of research, so it’s best only to use publications no more than 5 years old.

To learn more about credible research sources, check out our guide on choosing reliable websites .

We’ve taught you all you need to write a well-researched and thoughtful abortion paper. Finally, we want to give you an example of an essay on the topic “ Should Abortion Rights Be Preserved? ” Check it out to gain inspiration.

Now you know all the details of abortion paper writing. Use our tips to choose a topic, develop sound arguments, and impress your professor with a stellar piece on this debatable subject!

❓ Abortion Research Paper FAQs

First, you need to pick a debatable topic about abortion and develop a thesis statement on that subject.
Next, choose the arguments to support your claim and use external evidence to back them up.
End the paper with a concise wrap-up.
Begin your introduction with a catchy fact or shocking statistics on the issue of abortion.
Ask a rhetorical question to boost your readers’ interest.
Cite a famous person’s words about the pros and cons of legal abortion.

To compose a strong opening for your abortion essay, make sure to provide some background and context for further discussion. Explain why the debate about abortions is so acute and what the roots of the problem are.

There are many interesting topics related to abortion, spanning the areas of sociology, ethics, and medicine. You can focus on the progression of the abortion debate along with civil rights or discuss abortion from a feminist perspective.

You can choose between qualitative and quantitative approaches for your abortion research. Hold a survey among women and report the findings of your qualitative study in a short report. Or, you can measure factual information in numbers and conduct quantitative research.

The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Research Paper: Grammarly
Scholarly Articles on Abortion: Gale
Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Worldwide: Guttmacher Institute
Why Abortion Should Be Legal: News 24
Pro and Con: Abortion: Britannica
Organizing Academic Research Papers: The Introduction: Sacred Heart University
How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Research Paper: Steps and Examples: Research.com
Abortion: American Psychological Association
Writing a Research Paper: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Writing a Research Paper: Purdue University
A Process Approach to Writing Research Papers: University of California, Berkeley
What Is Qualitative vs. Quantitative Study?: Grand Canyon University
Decimal Outlines: Texas A&M University
Share to Facebook
Share to Twitter
Share to LinkedIn
Share to email

How to Restate a Thesis Statement: Examples & Tips

What is the most important part of any essay or research paper? Of course, it’s the thesis statement—a sentence that expresses the paper’s main idea and guides the readers through your arguments. But where do you place the thesis? You’ve probably answered, “in the introduction.” However, that’s not all of...

How to Write a Formal Essay: Format, Rules, & Example

If you’re a student, you’ve heard about a formal essay: a factual, research-based paper written in 3rd person. Most students have to produce dozens of them during their educational career.  Writing a formal essay may not be the easiest task. But fear not: our custom-writing team is here to guide...

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Outline: Examples & Strategies

Rhetorical analysis is never a simple task. This essay type requires you to analyze rhetorical devices in a text and review them from different perspectives. Such an assignment can be a part of an AP Lang exam or a college home task. Either way, you will need a solid outline...

How to Write a Narrative Essay Outline: Template & Examples

Narrative essays are unlike anything you wrote throughout your academic career. Instead of writing a formal paper, you need to tell a story. Familiar elements such as evidence and arguments are replaced with exposition and character development. The importance of writing an outline for an essay like this is hard...

What Is a Discourse Analysis Essay: Example & Guide

Discourse is the way people talk about any specific topic. It’s also the way in which language is used to convey social and historical meanings. Discourse analysis is the process that helps to understand the underlying message of what is being said. Sounds interesting? Keep reading to learn more.  This in...

How to Write a Precis: Definition, Guide, & Examples

A précis is a brief synopsis of a written piece. It is used to summarize and analyze a text’s main points. If you need to write a précis for a research paper or the AP Lang exam, you’ve come to the right place. In this comprehensive guide by Custom-Writing.org, you’ll...

How to Write a Synthesis Essay: Examples, Topics, & Outline

A synthesis essay requires you to work with multiple sources. You combine the information gathered from them to present a well-rounded argument on a topic. Are you looking for the ultimate guide on synthesis essay writing? You’ve come to the right place! In this guide by our custom writing team,...

How to Write a Catchy Hook: Examples & Techniques

Do you know how to make your essay stand out? One of the easiest ways is to start your introduction with a catchy hook. A hook is a phrase or a sentence that helps to grab the reader’s attention. After reading this article by Custom-Writing.org, you will be able to...

How to Write a Critical Analysis Essay: Examples & Guide

A critical analysis essay is an academic paper that requires a thorough examination of theoretical concepts and ideas. It includes a comparison of facts, differentiation between evidence and argument, and identification of biases. Crafting a good paper can be a daunting experience, but it will be much easier if you...

How to Write a Critical Thinking Essay: Examples & Outline

Critical thinking is the process of evaluating and analyzing information. People who use it in everyday life are open to different opinions. They rely on reason and logic when making conclusions about certain issues. A critical thinking essay shows how your thoughts change as you research your topic. This type...

How to Write a Process Analysis Essay: Examples & Outline

Process analysis is an explanation of how something works or happens. Want to know more? Read the following article prepared by our custom writing specialists and learn about: process analysis and its typesa process analysis outline tipsfree examples and other tips that might be helpful for your college assignment So,...

How to Write a Visual Analysis Essay: Examples & Template

A visual analysis essay is an academic paper type that history and art students often deal with. It consists of a detailed description of an image or object. It can also include an interpretation or an argument that is supported by visual evidence. In this article, our custom writing experts...

Open access
Published: 21 May 2024

Tanzanian adolescents’ attitudes toward abortion: innovating video vignettes in survey research on health topics

Anna Bolgrien ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1954-2403 1 &
Deborah Levison ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3718-3432 2

Reproductive Health volume 21 , Article number: 66 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

The purpose of this study was to pilot an innovative cartoon video vignette survey methodology to learn about young people’s perspectives on abortion and sexual relationships in Tanzania. The Animating Children’s Views methodology used videos shown on tablets to engage young people in conversations. Such conversations are complicated because abortion is highly stigmatized, inaccessible, and illegal in Tanzania.

The cartoon video vignette methodology was conducted as a part of a quantitative survey using tablet computers. Hypothetical situations and euphemistic expressions were tested in order to engage adolescents on sensitive topics in low-risk ways. Qualitative interviews and focus groups validated and further explored the perspectives of the young respondents.

Results indicate that 12–17 year-olds usually understand euphemistic expressions for abortion and are aware of social stigma and contradictory norms surrounding abortion from as young as age twelve. Despite the risks involved with abortion, this study finds adolescents sometimes view abortion as a reasonable solution to allow a girl to remain in school. Additional findings show that as adolescents wrestle with how to respond to a schoolgirl’s pregnancy, they are considering both the (un)affordability of healthcare services and also expectations for gender roles.

Conclusions

Digital data collection, such as the Animating Children’s Views cartoon video vignettes used in this study, allows researchers to better understand girls’ and boys’ own perspectives on their experiences and reproductive health.

Plain English Summary

The Animating Children’s Views project used cartoon video vignettes to collect quantitative and qualitative data on girls’ and boys’ (infrequently included) perspectives about this sensitive topic as these young people aged into and figured out how to navigate sexual maturity in rural and urban Tanzania. This novel survey technique leveraged digital technology to better engage young people’s perspectives about sensitive health topics. Despite the risks involved with abortion, this study finds adolescents sometimes view abortion as a reasonable solution to allow a girl to remain in school. Additional findings show that as adolescents wrestle with how to respond to a schoolgirl’s pregnancy, they are considering both the (un)affordability of healthcare services and also expectations for gender roles. We argue that digital data collection allows survey research to include girls and boys, to better understand how reproductive health outcomes are inextricably linked to their future lives.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

“Sometimes bad luck happens, and a girl gets pregnant when she is still studying. And if the teacher knows about it, she might not attend school. And she can either abort the pregnancy or deliver and care for the baby. Some of the students are curious. They might know she is pregnant. It will be a shame on her. They can report her to the teacher, and she might be dismissed from school. The teachers will not understand her situation; they will not know it’s something that you did not plan for. They will feel you did it deliberately.” [girl, age 15, focus group, urban]

Approximately one-quarter of Tanzanian adolescents girls become pregnant between the ages of 15 to 19 years [ 43 ]. Many young people in Tanzania are sexually active from as young as 10–14 years of age or plan to become sexually active before marriage [ 27 , 15 ]. Some girls have sex because boys are not expected to be abstinent, and they expect their girlfriends to have sex with them. In addition to seeking sexual relationships out of desire, girls may enter into consensual transactional sexual relationships with older boys or men as a way to secure financial stability [ 25 , 46 ]. Peer pressure, lack of familial financial support, lack of information about health services, and poverty all strongly correlate with high rates of teenage pregnancy [ 29 ]. Cultural barriers make it difficult for schools, non-governmental organizations, and parents to communicate appropriate and accurate reproductive health information to youth [ 34 , 45 ]. Girls may face difficulties obtaining and paying for contraceptives [ 23 ] or for an abortion after an unplanned pregnancy.

Girls experience stigma at multiple levels of society when navigating teenage sexual relationships and their education [ 18 , 33 ]. To surmount these and other challenges, Tanzanian girls and boys are convinced that “education is the key to life” ( Elimu ni ufunguo wa maisha. See Vavrus [ 44 ]). Becoming pregnant while in school puts a girl at risk of social isolation and being labeled a “bad girl” [ 11 ]. Additionally, at the time of this study the legal reality was that pregnant girls were expelled from school [ 8 ]. In 2021, the World Bank’s influence and change in Tanzanian leadership have led to changes in the government’s approach to schoolgirl pregnancy and motherhood (Reuters [ 35 ]). However, implementation of the revised policy requires separate schools for young mothers, which are unlikely to be accessible for much of the population any time soon.

What results is a culture of secrecy where young people hide their relationships from parents and peers alike. Abortion – illegal in Tanzania – may seem like a way of escaping a life-long penalty for premarital sexual activity. Yet, unsafe abortions account for a substantial fraction of maternal deaths in Tanzania [ 17 ]. Anti-abortion sentiment arises from religious objections; pro-choice discourse from public health aims to reduce maternal mortality rates due to unsafe illegal abortions; and human rights organizations call for women to have a choice in their reproductive health [ 36 ]. In the event of a pregnancy, secrecy can be maintained only through unsafe and potentially deadly abortion services, as the great majority of girls cannot raise the necessary funds for safer illegal abortions in private clinics [ 39 ].

Given the consequences of the lack of social support, accurate health information, and significant impacts to their lives, it is important to learn more about how young people are navigating the competing pressures of engaging in sexual relationships and staying in school if policy makers and researchers are to help improve outcomes for adolescents. While the overall study was methodologically driven and featured various topics and themes relating to the lives of adolescents in Tanzania, this paper focuses on how a cartoon video vignette methodology engaged young people in order to learn about how they weighed the risks and benefits of abortion in a context where teen pregnancy may be the end of education for girls.

In this paper, we present mixed-methods results using quantitative and qualitative data collected in response to a story about teen pregnancy. We find children and adolescents understood concerns about social stigma and were aware of contradictory norms surrounding abortion. They also shared their perceptions of inadequate health care services and views on gendered decision-making. Our results show that adolescents were considering complex social, medical, ethical, and pragmatic factors surrounding teenage pregnancy and abortion. In addition to the substantive findings, this paper also argues that a vignette methodology can be a useful way to collect survey data on children’s perspectives, made possible through advances in the usability and affordability of digital technology in field work. We describe two techniques – the use of euphemistic expressions and asking questions about hypotheticals – to learn children’s opinions about sensitive topics like abortion.

Methodology: using video vignettes in survey research

The relationship between high rates of teenage pregnancy and unknown rates of abortion – both sensitive topics – is examined primarily in qualitative research because researchers can take more time to establish rapport and build trust, thereby reducing risks to and vulnerability felt by participants [ 9 ]. Qualitative research is ideal for understanding nuances of how youth are interpreting cultural norms towards abortion and how they are thinking about access, effectiveness, and safety of abortion services in the event that they may at some point face an unplanned pregnancy. However, qualitative studies of youth’s experience and attitudes towards abortion across sub-Saharan Africa typically engage with older girls, most often between 15 and 24 years old, such as Bajoga et al. [ 3 ] and Otoide et al. [ 31 ] in Nigeria, Silburschmidt and Rasch [ 39 ] in Tanzania, Hall et al. [ 11 ] in Ghana, and Marlow et al. [ 22 ] in Kenya. Data on boys of all ages and younger girls are limited; one exception is Sommer et al. [ 40 ].

It can be difficult to gather quantitative data on experiences of abortion. Survey research on abortion in Tanzania and elsewhere generally focuses on adult women and occasionally men. While married or older women may feel less stigma associated with sexual behaviors, survey respondents may still feel uncomfortable responding to abortion-related topics that may be inappropriate to discuss in public, topics that would lead to admitting an illegal action, or topics where a truthful answer would be a violation of a social norm [ 42 ]. In the case of abortion, qualitative interviews with adult women in Tanzania and elsewhere who have experienced abortion frequently report that internalized stigma results in abortions being underreported or omitted from survey data (e.g., Astbury-Ward et al. [ 1 ] for the UK; Haws et al. [ 13 ] for Tanzania). Quantitative surveys typically avoid sensitive topics, particularly in contexts where privacy may be impossible. This is of high importance when engaging with vulnerable people. Adolescents may be particularly alert to sensitive topics and not feel comfortable disclosing their experiences in direct conversation [ 4 ]. If the children or adolescents are overheard saying anything that an adult deems inappropriate, they could be physically punished, have food withheld or be otherwise penalized. Quantitative studies of adolescents in Tanzania include a few examples of young people’s sexual experiences but these do not specifically discuss abortion [ 32 , 28 , 38 ].

Vignettes are one way that survey researchers can learn respondents’ views, by asking them about characters in a story instead of about personal experiences [ 10 , 30 , 14 ]. Vignettes can be written text, cartoons, read-aloud, or videos; respondents answer questions based on details in the story. Videos shown on tablets are similar to methods of communication that many young people in Tanzania are familiar with: 100% of our respondents had seen a video before. Instead of solely using a traditional question-answer format – which may feel to adolescents like an examination – videos creatively allowed participants to engage with stories.

Vignettes about abortion have been used in previous studies with adults (Sastre et al. [ 37 ] in France, Hans and Kimberly [ 12 ] in USA, Kavanaugh et al. [ 16 ] in Nigeria and Zambia). In a study in neighboring Kenya, Mitchell et al. [ 24 ] used vignettes to compare adolescents’ recommendations to a fictional couple, their own hypothetical future, and real examples of peers’ unplanned pregnancies and abortions. Their results suggest that respondents held different expectations for the vignette couple than for themselves or their peers.

The research presented in this paper fills a gap in the literature: young people’s perspectives – especially those of younger girls and of boys – are often excluded from research on abortion and sexual relationships. We show results from a novel methodology designed to illuminate the perspectives of children in low-income countries while reducing participation risks for young respondents.

Methodology: Animating Children’s Views (ACV)

The Animating Children’s Views (ACV) methodology developed by Levison and Bolgrien [ 21 ] used cartoon vignettes to present short stories to 12-to-17-year-olds in rural and urban northern Tanzania. While the use of tablet computers to collect survey data in the field is not a new technology, the ability to incorporate short videos during the survey allowed the field team to better engage young respondents during the interview. Respondents watched the cartoons and then responded to survey questions posed by interviewers about the situation and possible outcomes for characters in the stories. The innovation in using tablets to show videos establishes a way to create an experience where the respondent is expressing perspectives or opinions on a qualitative topic, but responses are coded as quantitative data collected during a survey.

In pilots of the ACV methodology, we developed several vignettes representing situations that are commonly understood by Tanzanian adolescents. As discussed above, the primary method of reducing risk was to present stories to young respondents on tablet computers, using audio heard privately through headphones. The stories were followed by questions about the stories conducted using a typical interviewer-led survey, but with reference to the videos that would be unlikely for nearby adults to understand (since they didn’t hear the videos). This, in turn, reduced the risk of participants being punished for responses viewed as inappropriate. Using free software and simple drawings, we created short cartoon videos with young protagonists along with recorded voice-overs in Swahili. The cartoon characters lack physical or contextual characteristics that would associate them with any particular ethnicity or socio-economic status. Figure 1 shows two of the images from the story about teen pregnancy.

Images of pregnant girl and “getting herbs or medicine” from ACV teen pregnancy vignette. Artist credit: Hillary Carter-Liggett

As described above, respondents watched a video and then answered survey questions about the dilemma it described. Some response options used a 5-point “Smiley Scale”: respondents could point at a face emoji (very sad/angry to very happy). Other questions required responses of a word or phrase. To better understand the quantitative results, some young respondents participated in brief qualitative interviews after the conclusion of the quantitative survey data collection, and some joined sex- and age-specific focus groups. All stories were validated in collaboration with the Tanzanian field team and through cognitive interviews with Tanzanian adolescents.

In the vignette analyzed in this paper, a schoolgirl with a boyfriend finds herself pregnant. The story explains that the girl would like children at some point, but now is not the right time. The girl recognizes that it is difficult for pregnant girls and mothers to remain in school. The cartoon girl thinks about several possible outcomes for the pregnancy, including getting an abortion, marrying the boy, or asking grandparents to care for the baby. Girls heard a female voice telling the story from the point of view of the cartoon girl. Boys were shown exactly the same video images but heard a male voice narrating from the point of view of the father of the fetus. No information about the cartoon couples’ exact ages, education levels, or family backgrounds was given, though our pretesting of the story suggests most respondents interpreted the characters as young people of similar ages to themselves.

Interviewer effects on survey data are a persistent concern for researchers especially when interviewing children and adolescents [ 19 ]. In an attempt to please interviewers, respondents may answer questions in ways that are consistent with a dominant social narrative; Morris [ 26 ] calls such responses “scripts” based on her research with adolescents in Zanzibar, Tanzania. For example, Mitchell et al. [ 24 ] found that children in Kenya often referenced textbook sentiments about abortions. In our study, survey questions following the vignette asked what the cartoon characters should do. The question wording allowed the respondent to keep the conversation firmly in the hypothetical third person (about the cartoon character) instead of asking respondents to share information about their personal opinions or experiences. Although Mitchell et al. [ 24 ] found that their respondents were more understanding of peers and of themselves than of vignette characters, in our focus groups young people often used local examples or even slipped into the first person when describing what the cartoon character should do in a difficult situation. This is a local example:

“I was studying with this girl. She got pregnant. The father of this girl came to school, and the teachers said, ‘we can’t accept this girl back because she is pregnant.’ The girl dropped out of school. But as her friends, we were not happy about the situation.” [boy, 17, focus group, rural].

Even though we explicitly did not request information about young people’s own experiences, these came up naturally in qualitative discussions. Similar to Mitchell et al.’s [ 24 ] conclusions, we demonstrate below that Tanzanian youth express opinions that sometimes conform to but also sometimes contradict social narratives or scripts, even when discussing hypothetical vignettes.

Some of the quotes presented in this paper may make it seem as if a child were asked directly about abortion or were asked to describe personal experiences. This was not the case. During interactions between field researchers and young respondents, we aimed to minimize any discussion using the word “abortion” in order to protect the adolescent from repercussions from conversing with a stranger about a sensitive topic. As corporal punishment is common in Tanzania, ethical protection of children as a vulnerable population necessitated extra caution on behalf of the research team to mitigate the potential of a child being punished by an adult who overheard the interview [ 41 ]. Instead of speaking directly about abortions, the euphemism “take herbs and medicine to get her period back” was used in Swahili. The results section will show that most young respondents understood this euphemism. If a child voluntarily used the word “abortion” or mentioned other sensitive topics, field researchers were trained to continue the conversation only if the location of the interview was private enough that there was no risk of being overheard by adults or other children. We conducted a small follow-up study with respondents in the pilot and none reported any risk or discomfort following the interview ([ 21 ], pg S152). We attribute our success to these precautions.

Data Collection

The vignette methodology was piloted in two locations in northern Tanzania in 2018 using a mixed-methods approach as shown in Fig. 2 . This project was approved on May 18, 2018, by the IRB of the University of Minnesota (STUDY00003131) and by the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) on May 10, 2018, in Tanzania. Adult and child participants were given a small gift of sugar, school supplies or a small monetary payment based on recommendations by local collaborators. The first pilot location was a village in the Arusha District that was purposefully selected based on the diversity of ethnicities (predominantly Chagga and Iraqw), religions (Christian and Muslim) and occupations (farming, herding, and small businesses). Following the rural pilot, a second pilot was conducted in urban areas in Arusha District. We used a household-based instead of a school-based sample and did not require literacy to identify our study population. The pilots used a two-stage systematic random sampling of households in wards and neighborhoods drawn for the purpose of this study by the field team with support from local village and community leaders, as discussed in Bolgrien and Levison [ 6 ]. In each household, an adult answered a questionnaire about household demographics, and all available children ages 12–17 in the household were asked to participate in a face-to-face administered survey that included vignettes. Adults gave consent for household and child participation and children gave assent to the interviewer prior to the start of the survey. Survey teams were trained to conduct the survey in a public (visible) area but out of earshot of adults, to create privacy for the child respondents during in-person surveys and one-on-one interviews; training also included other methods to reduce perceived power disparities between adult interviewers and young interviewees [ 7 ]. Each pilot included teams of 4–6 experienced young Tanzanian interviewers; the authors and local staff conducted additional training in survey data collection and qualitative methods with adolescents.

Study development and pilot studies in Tanzania 2018

Table 1 shows sample characteristics for young survey respondents. In total, 327 children in 248 households were surveyed. Most came from relatively large households of about six people (including themselves). In each household, each available (and assenting) 12–17 year-old was included in the survey. In both samples, especially the rural village, the sample was skewed toward younger ages. Older children were often away in boarding school or had left home to work. The urban field research was conducted during the beginning of a school holiday so more older adolescents were available. Although all survey participants had attended school at some point, more than one-quarter of the rural children were no longer enrolled in school. The vignette about teen pregnancy was only one of several possible vignette topics the children watched. Children were asked between each video if they would like to continue participating. In the rural village, children were shown up to four videos in a random order. During the rural pilot, one-third of respondents did not watch all four vignette videos, but data on the reason for discontinuing – a child’s decision, a field team member determining the child was fatigued or distracted, or an adult interrupting the interview – was not collected. Based on feedback from the field team after the rural pilot, we modified the survey design for the urban pilot to present 3 videos in a set order to reduce respondent burden. In the urban pilot, only 4% of respondents did not complete the 3 videos. A subset of 291 out of the 327 surveyed adolescents watched the story about teen pregnancy and answered its follow-up questions.

To better interpret the results from the quantitative survey data collected from households and children, we also collected concurrent qualitative data from the child respondents. After participating in the survey, a subset of 152 children assented to participate in semi-structured interviews which took place directly following the child’s survey. Children were asked about their answers to some of the survey questions about one or more of the videos. Finally, children who participated in the survey were asked if they would like to participate in focus groups. Interested and available children were organized into focus group discussions of three to 10 participants, grouped by sex and similar ages, to have conversations about the vignettes. The aim of these short interviews and focus groups was to assess the understandability of the vignettes, the degree of personal connection the children felt in regard to each story, and to explore ideas children had about possible outcomes for the story. The focus group discussions and interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed verbatim, translated from Swahili to English by the field team, and coded using ATLAS.ti 8 (Version 8.4.24.0) [ 2 ] in a collaborative and iterative effort by both authors and a project assistant. The story about teen pregnancy was discussed in 90 of the interviews and focus groups, and the topic of abortion was discussed 87 times. Language used in this paper will attempt to be true to the respondents’ language, e.g. referring to the cartoon boy as the “father” and saying “baby” instead of “fetus.”

Results and discussion about using a euphemism for abortion

As discussed above, we avoided using the term “abortion,” instead using the euphemism “the girl could take herbs or medicine to get her period back,” similar to other researchers’ use of euphemistic phrases like “sleep with someone” and “to make love” instead of “sexual intercourse” [ 33 , 5 ]. During the preparation and training for the field work, this phrase was generally understood by respondents. We continued to validate that this phrase was understood during the qualitative interviews that followed the survey.

Based on the follow-up interviews, older respondents of both sexes understood the language around “herbs and medicine” to be referring to abortion. When abortion was discussed, 26 respondents used language that indicated their understanding that the situation implied abortion or terminating the pregnancy. For example:

Interviewer: And then she uses herbs or medicines to get her periods back, what do you think is going to happen?

Respondent: abortion

Interviewer: what are the effects of it?

Respondent: The unborn baby will die. [boy, 14, urban]

In another 13 interviews, the young respondent’s language indicated clearly that she or he understood the purpose of using herbs and medicine but did not refer to abortion directly. Instead, language such as “bringing back normal periods,” “losing the baby,” “grief,” and “negative effects” are examples of how respondents referenced the termination of a pregnancy. A 14-year-old girl indicated in the survey that the cartoon girl was somewhat happy to take herbs and medicine, and during the interview the respondent described happiness resulting from using the herbs. The interviewer asked, “what are other effects after she gets her period back?” and the girl replied, “abortion.” After this, the respondent became less talkative and responsive and changed the subject.

Seven interviewees (both genders, age 12–15) likely did not understand the nuanced language of “herbs and medicine” to imply abortion. One (boy, 13, rural) misunderstood that herbs or medicine referred to birth control or pre-natal care given at hospitals. Additionally, some younger boys and girls did not make the connection between menstruation and pregnancy. Education (formal or informal) about reproduction and reproductive health is very limited for younger children in Tanzania [ 27 ]. Whereas girls may be warned about the possibility of pregnancy when they begin menstruating, this may not happen for boys entering puberty. Several of the older boys incorrectly described female reproductive anatomy and how or when to use birth control.

Results and discussion on young people’s perspectives on abortion

A survey question about the teen pregnancy vignette asked respondents to identify what was most likely to happen to the cartoon kids. As shown in Table 2 , among the options presented, 18% of respondents reported that the girl would abort the baby; it was the third highest-ranking option out of the five options, behind getting married and taking the baby to the girl’s family. In an open-ended question (not shown) that asked the respondent to imagine the most likely outcome to the story if it happened “around here,” 11% chose abortion.

The relative popularity of the options about getting married or having parents of the girl or boy help to care for the baby is consistent with the qualitative findings from the interviews and focus groups. Respondents often described the cartoon girl and boy as considering possible outcomes in order of desirability: If it was unlikely the cartoon couple could marry or care for the baby themselves, they would next approach one or both sets of parents; if that was unsuccessful or undesirable, then an abortion was considered. For example,

She will feel happy because it’s something she did not really like and did not expect it. So, if he [presumably the cartoon boyfriend] goes to his parent, first if he goes to the parents of the girl. I mean they can reject [the pregnancy or baby] and they can hate him. So she was, I mean … that’s why I said she would feel happy. Because, I mean, she probably can’t afford it and she might need to reduce her responsibilities. Because if she used those herbs to abort the pregnancy, you will find that she can continue with her normal things. [boy, 14, urban, 5 on Smiley Scale]

When we asked young respondents how they felt about abortion using the Smiley Scale, 56% of them thought abortion was a negative outcome (sad/angry or very sad/angry) for the cartoon couple, as shown in Table 3 . An additional 18% reported a neutral feeling (3 on the Smiley Scale). 25% reported that abortion would be a positive outcome (happy or very happy). Girls were less likely to be very happy than boys and more likely to be very sad/angry, but a chi-square test for the Smiley Scale cross tabulation by gender was significant only at the 11% level. T-tests for differences in the specific Smiley Scale responses by gender were significant only for “very happy” ( P = 0.012, not shown). The results from the qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups helped us understand these quantitative results.

Of the respondents who indicated that abortion was a positive outcome, the primary reason mentioned was that an abortion would allow the cartoon girl to return to her normal life and possibly stay in school or go back to school.

She may feel happy because, if you have not got your periods for a while, it could be a problem. So, it is better to look for herbs/medicines that will help. She has to deal with that in order to get her periods back. [girl, 17, urban, 5 on Smiley Scale]

She has very big dreams in her life. She has dreams that will take her five years to reach: ‘I want to be a certain type of person later.’ The boy came and shortened her dream. She will make sure… she aborts the pregnancy so that she achieves her dreams… [girl, focus group ages 14-17-year-old, rural]

These positive reactions are consistent with strong social norms in Tanzania for children to complete their education before starting a family [ 44 ]. Based on the qualitative evidence, both girls and boys felt that the cartoon girl should be in school, and abortion was the mechanism that would allow that.

Many of the reasons given for a negative reaction to abortion were consistent with moral and ethical qualms associated with it. In our study, children said that ending the pregnancy will make the girl sad because “the baby will die” (multiple respondents). Other reasons for negative responses towards abortion reflected the dangers of illegal abortion services, particularly in rural areas where undergoing abortions may be especially risky for the mother. Mitchell et al. [ 24 ] noted that such dangers, while real, are greatly exaggerated in Kenyan schools and educational materials; this may also be true in Tanzania.

She feels sad because she might die in the process of abortion, that is why she will feel very sad. [girl, 14, urban, 2 on Smiley Scale]

Given the strong social norms of remaining in school and cultural stigmatization of teen pregnancy and abortion in Tanzania, the results of strong negative and strong positive opinions found in the quantitative smiley-scale and accompanying qualitative validation are not surprising. But why would a respondent feel neutrally about abortion? In follow-up interviews, some respondents described the complexity of a situation that could involve abortion. One older boy said:

When I said abortion, I assumed the boy denies the pregnancy and leaves the girl to decide on her own. The girl can abort the pregnancy so as to look like other girls…She can go to school and feel young as other girls. She will decide to abort the pregnancy so she can match with other girls of her age and also [have the abortion] when the pregnancy is not noticeable to other people. Most girls end up doing this when the boys deny the pregnancies. [boy, 17, urban, 3 on Smiley Scale]

The cartoon boy denying that the baby was his and abandoning his girlfriend seemed likely to this respondent, who chose abortion to spare the cartoon girl from stigma and other troubles. Because he saw both negatives (denying paternity, abandonment) and positives (being able to hide the pregnancy), he chose the middle Smiley emoji.

Results and discussion on healthcare access and gendered decision-making

Survey results show that there is variation in how children and adolescents are thinking about cultural norms, social stigma, and the choices about hypothetical, yet possible, decisions that they or their peers may face in their own communities. The findings from the ACV methodology show that young people understand and interpret teenage pregnancy as a complex situation with multiple overlapping expectations, including staying in school and abstaining from sex while in school. Two additional themes appeared during the qualitative conversations about abortion: unaffordable health care and gendered decision making. Both of these topics are central to broader conversations about sexual and reproductive health access and female empowerment in Tanzania.

Respondents were acutely aware of the life-threatening nature of illegal abortions, particularly using local medicine or witch doctors as opposed to costly private clinics. One girl (age 17, urban) spoke of hearing about a girl going to a witch doctor for an abortion, but it was unsuccessful and resulted in an infection. The expense of an abortion was often directly connected to discussions about who would decide whether the fetus would be carried to term.

In the quantitative survey respondents indicated whom they thought would be the decision maker in the vignette about pregnancy. Table 4 shows that almost half of surveyed participants (48%; including 50% of girls and 46% of boys) reported the cartoon boy would make the decision and only 17% thought it would be the cartoon girl; only 3% thought the boy and girl would make the decision together. Other young respondents thought that adults such as parents or leaders (31%) or a combination of adults and adolescents (1%) would make the decision.

Many conversations in the qualitative interviews and focus groups talked about gender roles and decision-making when considering the cost of abortion and safe access to the healthcare system. The father of the baby was typically expected to determine whether to abort, either via positive support (the contribution of funds to pay for the abortion) or negative coercion (abandoning the cartoon girl and forcing her to make a decision between single motherhood or abortion).

For example, here is an excerpt from a focus group discussion among boys ages 13 and 14 [rural]:

Boy 1: He [another boy in focus group] says that the girl is the one to decide about aborting the pregnancy because the pregnancy is within her body. She is the one with the decision of abortion because that boy, even if he can manage to tell her to abort the pregnancy, she is the one with the decision. She can make the decision to go to search for drugs, get them, and abort that pregnancy.

Boy 2: I think that will not be possible, because where will she get the money? And you might find that her parents are against her. She cannot do it. They [the girl and boy] will have to sit together and negotiate about the pregnancy…They have to say whether they are getting married, should get married. If they have to abort, then abort…But one of them cannot get the ideas [alone] because they will go into the wrong direction.

Other respondents described the father of the unborn baby – the cartoon boy – as being the head of the family. They felt it was therefore up to the cartoon boy to find money for the girl and to help the girl decide what to do about the pregnancy. Both girls and boys took this patriarchal position. For example:

The boy has the power to do anything and also he is the head of the family. Probably, this girl wouldn’t be able to raise the baby or provide the basic needs for the baby. [girl, 12, rural]

The cartoon boy is the one with decisions to abort the pregnancy because he is the one who knows how he will take care for the child or how he will raise it. [boy, focus group ages13-14, rural]

Conversely, many girls (and some boys) were more likely to assert that the cartoon girl had the final decision about what to do about the pregnancy since the girl was the one carrying the baby and the one who faced the most risks if the pregnancy or abortion went wrong. Conversations in some female focus groups described situations where the cartoon girl would be able to find the money from her parents or by working. Some girls were also acutely aware that the final decision would often be left to the cartoon girl if the boy abandoned her or decided to deny that the baby was his, as in this case:

She will have thought ‘Maybe this boy will reject me? Will I fail to raise my child?’ Maybe she will also go to people who will advise her to abort the pregnancy so that she can go back to how she used to be. [girl, 17, urban]

As shown in Table 4 , while half of the girls responded that the cartoon boy would make the decision about the outcome of the story, 23% of the female respondents reported that the cartoon girl would be the final decision maker. This was the second most popular result for female respondents whereas the cartoon girl’s parents was the second most popular option (16%) for male respondents. Excluding the cartoon girl from the decision regarding her own pregnancy reflects the strong patriarchal norms in Tanzanian society (Leshabari et al. [ 20 ]).

Both our study and Mitchell et al. [ 24 ] suggest that East African children and adolescents have complex understandings about pregnancy and abortion, with discourse that may be heavily influenced by religious or other teachings but with pragmatic, less-judgmental responses to actual situations. These results show that there is variation in how children and adolescents are thinking about cultural norms, social stigma, and the choices about hypothetical, yet possible, decisions that they or their peers may face in their own communities.

Before exploring the results on views on abortion, stigmatization, access, and decision making, we first needed to confirm that the majority of children in the study understood the phrase “take herbs and medicine to get her period back” to be a euphemism for having an abortion. A limitation in our study is that we did not test directly using the word “abortion” because that would have exposed young respondents to increased risk of harm. This methodological innovation was successful as young respondents’ use of language indicated an awareness about social norms when discussing a sensitive topic with researchers (adult strangers). Participants likely considered their comfort level about interacting with the field researcher, as well as the likelihood of others overhearing the conversation. While our team took many precautions to avoid increasing risk to respondents, including monitoring the environment during the interview for anyone who might be listening, respondents were also actively making decisions about what language they used and their levels of openness in their responses. We argue that the benefits of being able to ask vulnerable populations questions about a sensitive subject are worth potential misunderstandings by a small minority of participants.

The findings from the ACV methodology show that young people understand and interpret teenage pregnancy as a complex situation with multiple overlapping expectations, including staying in school and abstaining from sex while in school. Our findings on the mixed positive and negative perspectives of abortion in the quantitative survey would have been difficult to interpret without the qualitative interviews. The video vignette methodology in this study successfully engaged with young people about a complex and sensitive topic in ways that showed that adolescents could formulated complex and thoughtful opinions on such topics. Young people’s quantitative answers to survey questions and qualitative comments reflected the lack of safe and affordable options and services for youths. Even though abortion was clearly perceived as physical risky and socially stigmatized, both girls and boys promoted it as a solution that would leave the cartoon girl in school, where they felt she belonged. An early, secret abortion could protect the girl from being expelled from school. However, respondents indicated that the cartoon boy must participate in this scheme because girls on their own were not expected to have the resources to seek a lower-risk abortion.

Even at a young age, girls and boys are balancing the high risk of unsafe abortions against the benefits of keeping the pregnancy secret and avoiding social stigmatization for either pregnancy or early school-leaving. In our sample, respondents of all ages and both genders discussed abortion with maturity and understanding. Boys’ perspectives are infrequently included in studies about abortion or reproductive health care services, but the findings from this mixed methods study show that boys (and girls) are considering the nuanced role of boys and men in supporting or funding an illegal abortion. Framing the decision of an abortion as involving not only the pregnant girl but also other influential people such as the boyfriend or the girl’s parents can inform sexual and reproductive health policies to better support young people. However, the sample sizes in these pilot studies are too small to identify patterns correlated with demographic characteristics.

The secrecy and stigmatization of teen sexual relationships and illegality of abortion have made it very hard for researchers (let alone policymakers) to understand how adolescents are weighing trade-offs and navigating the competing pressures from peers, relationships, and familial expectations about education. Using the Animating Children’s View methodology, the sensitive topic of abortion was discussed with adolescents and children as young as 12 in a way that allowed them to share their perspectives without divulging personal information about sexual behaviors. Video cartoons engaged their attention leading to serious questions and sometimes conversations about hypothetical cartoon characters. In a context where pregnancy and motherhood mean the end of schooling for girls, respondents grappled with difficult decisions the cartoon couple faced regarding pregnancy and potential abortion. In future research, it will be imperative to explore adolescents’ perspectives regarding abortion for schoolgirls as it relates to increased access to education for pregnant girls. The ACV methodology can be used to engage adolescent girls and boys about pregnancy, abortion, contraceptive access, and cultural norms and stigma so their voices are included in such policy decisions.

Availability of data and materials

Participants of this study did not consent for their data to be shared publicly.

Abbreviations

Animating Children’s Views

Astbury-Ward E, Parry O, Carnwell R. Stigma, abortion, and disclosure-findings from a qualitative study. J Sex Med. 2012;9(12):3137–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2011.02604.x .

ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH [ATLAS.ti 8 Windows]. (2019). Retrieved from https://atlasti.com .

Bajoga UA, Atagame KL, Okigbo CC. Media influence on sexual activity and contraceptive use: a cross sectional survey among young women in urban Nigeria. Afr J Reprod Health. 2015;19(3):100–10.

Baker C, Renold E. I wanna tell you a story’: exploring the application of vignettes in qualitative research with children and young people. Int J Soc Res Methodol. 2000;3(4):307–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570050178594 .

Bell SO, Sheehy G, Hyacinthe AK, Guiella G, and Moreau C. Induced abortion incidence and safety in Côte d’Ivoire. PLoS ONE. 2020;15(5):1–15. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232364 .

Article CAS Google Scholar

Bolgrien A, Levison D. Challenges of designing and implementing three sampling frames targeting children in Tanzania and Nepal: proportional stratified, multi-stage, and geographically dispersed sampling techniques. Minnesota Population Center Working Paper series. 2021. 2021-2. https://doi.org/10.18128/MPC2021-02 .

Bolgrien A, Levison D, Vavrus F. Complicating research on children’s right to be heard: generational power and risk,. In: Levison D, Maynes MJ, and Vavrus F, editors. Children and Youth as Subjects, Objects, Agents: Innovative Approaches to Research Across Space and Time. New York: Palgrave Macmillan; 2021. p. 227–43.

Cardoso JC, Mwolo MP. Assessment of non-formal sexual education strategies for adolescent girls: the case of Tanzania. Ensaio. 2017;25(95):527–47. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-40362017002501111 .

Dickson-Swift V, James EL, Kippen S, Liamputtong P. Doing sensitive research: what challenges do qualitative researchers face? Qualitative Res. 2007;7(3):327–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794107078515 .

Gourlay A, Mshana G, Birdthistle I, Bulugu G, Zaba B, Urassa M. Using vignettes in qualitative research to explore barriers and facilitating factors to the uptake of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services in rural Tanzania: a critical analysis. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2014;14(21):1–11.

Hall KS, Manu A, Morhe E, Dalton VK, Challa S, Loll D, et al. Bad girl and unmet family planning needs among sub-Saharan African adolescents: the role of sexual and reproductive health stigma. Qualitative Res Med Healthc. 2018;2(1):55–64.

Hans JD, Kimberly C. Abortion attitudes in context: a multidimensional vignette approach. Soc Sci Res. 2014;48:145–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.06.001 .

Haws RA, Mashasi I, Mrisho M, Schellenberg JA, Darmstadt GL, Winch PJ. ‘These are not good things for other people to know’: how rural Tanzanian women’s experiences of pregnancy loss and early neonatal death may impact survey data quality. Soc Sci Med. 2010;71(10):1764–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.03.051 .

Hughes R, Huby M. The construction and interpretation of vignettes in social research. Social Work Social Sci Rev. 2004;11(1):36–51. https://doi.org/10.1921/17466105.11.1.36 .

Kakoko DCV. Reported heterosexual intercourse and related behaviours among primary school pupils in Kinondoni District, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Cult Health Sex. 2013;15(2):235–45.

Article PubMed Google Scholar

Kavanaugh ML, Moore AM, Akinyemi O, Adewole I, Dzekedzeke K, Awolude O, et al. Community attitudes toward childbearing and abortion among HIV-positive women in Nigeria and Zambia. Cult Health Sexuality. 2013;15(2):160–74. https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2014.371 .

Keogh SC, Kimaro G, Muganyizi P, Philbin J, Kahwa A, Ngadaya E, et al. Incidence of induced abortion and post-abortion care in Tanzania. PLoS ONE. 2015;10(9):e0133933. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133933 .

Kumar A, Hessini L, Mitchell EMH. Conceptualising abortion stigma. Cult Health Sexuality. 2009;11(6):625–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691050902842741 .

Leone T, Sochas L, Coast E. Depends who’s asking: interviewer effects in Demographic and Health Surveys abortion data. Demography. 2021;58(1):31–50. https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-8937468 .

Leshabari MT, Mpangile GS, Kaaya SF, Kihwele DJ. From teenage unwanted pregnancy to induced abortion: who facilitates links? Int J Adolescence Youth. 1994;4(3–4):195–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.1994.9747736 .

Levison D, Bolgrien A. Using cartoon videos to survey children and adolescents in the Global South: a Tanzanian example. Stat J IAOS. 2020;36(S1):S147–59. https://doi.org/10.3233/SJI-200698 .

Marlow HM, Wamugi S, Yegon E, Fetters T, Wanaswa L, Msipa-Nbebele S. Women’s perceptions about abortion in their communities: perspectives from Western Kenya. Reprod Health Matters. 2014;22(43):149–58.

McCleary-Sills J, Douglas Z, Rwehumbiza A, Hamisi A, Mabala R. Gendered norms, sexual exploitation and adolescent pregnancy in rural Tanzania. Reprod Health Matters. 2013;21(41):97–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0968-8080(13)41682-8 .

Mitchell EMH, Halpern CT, Kamathi EM, Owino S. Social scripts and stark realities: Kenyan adolescents’ abortion discourse. Cult Health Sex. 2006;8(6):515–28.

Mojola S. Love, Money, and HIV: Becoming a Modern African Woman in the Age of AIDS. Oakland, CA: University of California Press; 2014.

Book Google Scholar

Morris E. 2018. Performing Graduates, Dropouts, and Pushouts: The Gendered Scripts and Aspirations of Secondary School Students in Zanzibar. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota.] UMN Repository. https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/206429/Morris_umn_0130E_19596 pdf.

Njau B, Mtweve S, Manongi R, Jalipa H. Gender differences in intention to remain a virgin until marriage among school pupils in rural Northern Tanzania. Afr J AIDS Res. 2009;8(2):157–66.

Nkata H, Teixeira R, Barros H. A scoping review on sexual and reproductive health behaviors among Tanzanian adolescents. Public Health Rev. 2019;40(1):1–15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40985-019-0114-2 .

Nyangarika A, Nombo NM, Mtani M. Teen pregnancies among day government secondary school students in Ruvuma Region Tanzania. Int J Adv Res Innovative Ideas Educ. 2020;6(4):157–66.

O’Dell L, Crafter S, de Abreu G, Cline T. The problem of interpretation in vignette methodology in research with young people. Qualitative Res. 2012;12(6):702–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112439003 .

Otoide VO, Oronsaye F, Okonofua FE. Why Nigerian adolescents seek abortion rather than contraception: evidence from focus-group discussions. Int Fam Plan Perspect. 2001;27(2):77–81. https://doi.org/10.2307/2673818 .

Plummer ML, Ross DA, Wight D, Changalucha J, Mshana G, Wamoyi J, Todd J, et al. A bit more truthful’: the validity of adolescent sexual behaviour data collected in rural Northern Tanzania using five methods. Sex Transm Infect. 2004a;80(SUPPL 2):49–56. https://doi.org/10.1136/sti.2004.011924 .

Plummer ML, Wight D, Ross DA, Balira R, Anemona A, Todd J, Salamba Z, et al. Asking semi-literate adolescents about sex behaviour: the validity of Assisted Self-Completion Questionnaire (ASCQ) data in rural Tanzania. Trop Med Int Health. 2004b;9(6):737–54.

Remes P, Renju J, Nyalali K, Medard L, Kimaryo M, Changalucha J, et al. Dusty discos and dangerous desires: community perceptions of adolescent sexual and reproductive health risks and vulnerability and the potential role of parents in rural Mwanza, Tanzania. Cult Health Sex. 2010;12(3):279–92.

Reuters. 2021. Tanzania to Offer Alternative Education for School Dropouts Including Pregnant Girls -Official. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-06-22/tanzania-to-offer-alternative-education-for-school-dropouts-including-pregnant-girls-official .

Sambaiga R, Haukanes H, Moland KM, Blystad A. Health, life and rights: a discourse analysis of a hybrid abortion regime in Tanzania. Int J Equity Health. 2019;18(1):1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1039-6 .

Sastre MTM, Peccarisi C, Legrain E, Mullet E, Sorum P. Acceptability in France of induced abortion for adolescents. Am J Bioeth. 2007;7(8):26–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265160701462368 .

Shayo FK, Kalomo MH. Prevalence and correlates of sexual intercourse among sexually active in-school adolescents: an analysis of five sub-Sahara African Countries for the adolescent’s sexual health policy implications. BMC Public Health. 2019;19(1):1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7632-1 .

Silberschmidt M, Rasch V. Adolescent girls, illegal abortions and ‘sugar-daddies’ in Dar es Salaam: vulnerable victims and active social agents. Soc Sci Med. 2001;52(12):1815–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00299-9 .

Sommer M, Likindikoki S, Kaaya S. Bend a fish when the fish is not yet dry’: adolescent boys’ perceptions of sexual risk in Tanzania. Arch Sex Behav. 2015;44(3):583–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0406-z .

Sungwa R, Jackson L, Kahembe J. Corporal punishment in preschool and at home in Tanzania: a children’s rights challenge. SpringerBriefs Educ. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1569-7 .

Tourangeau R, Yan T. Sensitive questions in surveys. Psychol Bull. 2007;133(5):859–83. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.5.859 .

UNFPA Tanzania. Fact Sheet: Teenage Pregnancy Success Story from the Field. 2018.

Google Scholar

Vavrus F. Desire and Decline: Schooling amid Crisis in Tanzania. New York: Peter Lang; 2003.

Wamoyi J, Fenwick A, Urassa M, Zaba B, Stones W. Parent-child communication about sexual and reproductive health in rural Tanzania: implications for young people’s sexual health interventions. Reprod Health. 2010;7(1):1–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4755-7-6 .

Wamoyi J, Heise L, Meiksin R, Kyegombe N, Nyato D, Buller AM. Is transactional sex exploitative? A social norms perspective, with implications for interventions with adolescent girls and young women in Tanzania. PLoS ONE. 2019;14(4):1–16. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214366 .

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota; also to Binu Sharma, and Deborah S. DeGraff for their assistance. We thank the field team members who collected the quantitative and qualitative data: Gloria Gerald, Haikael Mjema, Juliet Mongi, Masai Loreu, Rachel Gerald, Godfrey Rwiza, Nancy Laiser, Helen Urio, and David Mollel.

Permission to reproduce material from other sources

This work was supported from the Human Rights Initiative Fund of the University of Minnesota 2018 and 2019; the University of Minnesota’s Grants-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship 2018–2019; and the Minnesota Population Center, funded through a grant (P2C HD041023) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development or NICHD. The funder had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or reporting.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 225 – 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

Anna Bolgrien

Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 301 – 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

Deborah Levison

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed to conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, and writing this manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna Bolgrien .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

This project was approved by the IRB of the University of Minnesota (STUDY00003131) and by the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) in Tanzania.

Consent for publication

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Bolgrien, A., Levison, D. Tanzanian adolescents’ attitudes toward abortion: innovating video vignettes in survey research on health topics. Reprod Health 21 , 66 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-024-01809-x

Download citation

Received : 29 December 2023

Accepted : 08 May 2024

Published : 21 May 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-024-01809-x

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Sexual and reproductive health
Survey methods

Reproductive Health

ISSN: 1742-4755

General enquiries: [email protected]

245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

📑 aspects to cover in an abortion essay, 🏆 best abortion topic ideas & essay examples, 🥇 most interesting abortion topics to write about, 💡 good essay topics on abortion, 📌 simple & easy abortion essay titles, 📑 good research topics about abortion, 🎓 abortion argumentative essay topics, ❓ questions about abortion for research paper.

If you need to write an abortion essay, you might be worried about the content, arguments, and other components of the paper. Don’t panic – this guide contains the key aspects that will make your essay on abortion outstanding.

Historical Perspectives

First of all, you should think about the historical perspectives on abortion. It is true that unwanted pregnancies were a thing long before any legislation in this area has been enacted. If you want to write on this topic, consider the following:

Historically, what were the main reasons for women of various titles to abort children?
What were the methods used for abortion before the development of modern medicine?
Were there any famous historical examples of women who aborted?
Is the history of abortion relevant to the contemporary debate? Why or why not?

Religious Arguments

In an abortion essay, pro-life arguments usually stem from religious beliefs. Hence, there are plenty of possibilities for you to explore religious arguments related to the debate on abortion. Here are some things to think about:

What are the ideas about abortion in different religions?
Why do various religions have different views on abortion?
Were there any other factors that affected how different religions saw abortion (e.g., political or social)?
Would an complete abortion ban be a correct solution from a religious viewpoint? Why or why not?

Moral Arguments

Abortion is probably one of the most popular topics in the study of ethics. Moral arguments exist for both pro-choice and pro-life views on abortion, and you can thus explore both sides of the debate in your paper. These questions will help you to get started:

Why is abortion considered an ethical dilemma?
What do different ethical theories show when applied to abortion?
From a moral viewpoint, should the life of an unborn child be more important than the physical, psychological, and socioeconomic well being of the mother? Why or why not?
What would be some negative consequences of an abortion ban?

Women’s Rights

Abortion essay topics are often linked to the issue of women’s rights. According to most feminists, abortion is related to women’s bodily autonomy, and thus, legislators should not try to limit access to safe abortions. If you wish to explore the relationship between women’s rights and abortion, focus on the following:

Why is abortion considered to be a feminist issue?
Who should be involved in decisions about abortion?
Considering that most legislators who pass pro-life laws are male, is it correct to understand abortion legislation as reproductive control?
What are other gender issues associated with abortion?
From the feminist viewpoint, what would be the best way to approach the problem of high abortion rates?

Essay Structure

The structure of your essay is just as important as its content, so don’t forget about it. Here is what you could do to make your paper stand out:

Read sample papers on abortion to see how other people structure their work.
Write a detailed abortion essay outline before you start working.
Make sure that your points follow in a logical sequence – this will make your paper more compelling!
For a good abortion essay conclusion, do not introduce any new sources or points in the final paragraph.

By covering the aspects above, you will be able to write an influential paper that will earn you an excellent mark. Before you begin researching, check our website for free abortion essay examples and other useful content to help you get an A*!

Abortions: Causes, Effects, and Solutions The principal causes for the abortion problem are the social cause, which mandates ethical attitudes; the political cause, which affects legislation; and the environmental cause, which illuminates the initial stages of human development.
Pros and Cons of Abortion to the Society Argumentative Essay In the case of rape or incest, keeping a pregnancy is very traumatizing to the person raped as no one would wish to keep a child that is a result of this, and the best […]
Abortion: To Legalize or Not If a mother is denied an abortion due to its illegality, that mother then will be forced to go through the pregnancy, the labor, the birth, and the raising of an unwanted child. Another concern […]
Should Abortion Be Legal In addition to the burden of carrying the unborn baby, in most cases research findings have indicated that, majority of individuals who father some babies are unwilling to take the responsibility of contributing to the […]
Abortion and Virtue Ethics Those who support the right of a woman to an abortion even after the final trimester makes the assertion that the Constitution does not provide any legal rights for a child that is still within […]
Christian Ethics Issues and Abortion As for the rights and interests of the mother, when comparing them with the rights and interests of the child, there is a possibility of an axiological preference for the goods of the latter.
Social Problem: Abortion The willingness of the students to partake in the procurement of abortion was significantly correlated with the views that they held regarding the issue of abortion, the extent to which they would be required to […]
Ethics and Abortion In weighing the options concerning whether to perform an abortion and how to care for the patient, a healthcare entity must consider the legal implications, the patient’s and provider’s beliefs as well as the health […]
Abortion’s Pros and Cons Abortion, if legalized would curb unnecessary maternal deaths, in that, it would be done in the open and mothers would not be afraid of consulting qualified personnel for the same.
An Abortion Versus Fetus’s Right Dilemma On the other hand, she is afraid that the child will serve as a reminder of the rapist and she has set a lot of plans for her studies and career path.
Noonan and Thomson’s View on Abortion A more disarming approach is that of Thomson who maintains that the mother’s right to control her own body overrides the right to life of the fetus unless the mother has a special responsibility to […]
Abortion From the Utilitarian Perspective First and foremost, the majority of people will not abide by her since abortion is considered to be an immoral act of human murder.
Abortion in Marquis’s vs. Thompson’s Arguments Overall, the argument against the morality of abortion using the premise that the fetus has a right to live just like the mother is self-defeating in nature. It would be beneficial for the opponents of […]
Teenage Pregnancy and Abortion: Articles Evaluation The article highlights the importance of coming up with sexual health services and contraception methods, which are community-based for the benefit of the young people in a bid to counter the seemingly never-ending menace of […]
Arguments Against the Abortion The other danger associated with abortion is that it poses a danger to the reproductive system of women in the future.
Conservative and Liberal Arguments on Abortion Governments and health organizations’ move to control access to abortion led to the emergence of groups and movements supporting and opposing abortion.
Abortion in Teenagers: Proposal Argument In the overwhelming majority of cases, the teenager who has encountered such problems is inclined to violate the law, which often leads her to illegal and sometimes unsafe abortion. According to WHO, it is the […]
Abortion: An Unsolvable Dilemma? We know that Christians are composed of three congregations: the Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Those who believe in the Bible, it is clear that the Bible is straightforward on life, that is that God is […]
Abortion in Thomas Aquinas’ Religious View Abortion is aimed at the destruction of blastocyst, foetus, embryo or zygote and in the process kills the innocence any life that would be there.
Elizabeth Leiter’s The Abortion Divide Review Undeniably, The Abortion Divide film adequately shows the gradual growth in differences between the pro-choice and pro-life supporters but fails to bring a solution to the moral problem of abortion.
Discussion of Abortions: Advantages and Disadvantages The topic of abortions is, arguably, one of the most controversial and emotionally charged in the medical history, and it continues to cause a divide in healthcare even today.
Abortion: Why It Should Be Banned Most people are suffering from various pregnancy-related traumas as more and more couples are experiencing conceiving difficulties due to the current unhealthy food intake and environmental conditions; thus, having a baby could change a lot […]
Abortion Law in Canada For instance, in the report released by the Canada government in 2005, the overall rate of abortion in the country was approximately 14%, which was less than the 20% incidents reported in the United States, […]
Abortion and the Aspects of Pro-Abortion There are occasions where somebody can have an untimely pregnancy that might end up enslaving her to the man and this can be sorted out through abortion A foetus is not a baby and there […]
Abortion-Related Ethical Considerations As a health practitioner, following the required professional standards and regulations on abortion will enable me to avoid the wrath of the law.
Texas Abortion Ban as Current Political Topic Furthermore, denying women the right to make decisions regarding their bodies leads to the denial of bodily autonomy, which, in turn, must be regarded as a severe infringement on basic human rights.
Abortion in Australia: Legal and Ethical Issues A woman’s sexual companion is not needed to be informed of an abortion, and the judicial system does not give orders to stop the termination even when the complainant is the biological father of the […]
Abortion Law Reform and Maternal Mortality: Global Study Some of the criteria for selecting a credible source include the authors’ reputation, the time elapsed since published, and the legality of the publishing company or database.”Abortion Laws Reform May Reduce Maternal Mortality: An Ecological […]
The Ethics of Abortion in Nursing The sanctity of human life, non-maleficence, and the right to autonomy and self-determination are some of the fundamental ethical ideas frequently addressed regarding abortion.
Utilitarian Permissive Concept for Women’s Right to Choose Abortion Utilitarians believe that the right to choose abortion should be protected under the law as a matter of justice since a woman should have the right to make decisions concerning her own body and health.
Abortion: Positive and Negative Sides To sum up, despite abortion being presented as an illegal intervention against human life, proponents believe that as a safe medical procedure, it protects the lives of mothers.
Abortion vs. Right to Life Among Evangelical Protestants The issue of abortion is critical to many citizens, especially women. In addition to restricting women’s rights, the issue of abortion affects well-being.
Abortion and Significant Health Complications Considering the effects of abortion, such as excessive bleeding, infection, and perforation of the uterus, surgical abortion procedures due to incomplete abortion or even death abortion can be fatal to life and one’s health.
Abortion as an Ethical Issue in Medicine In resolving the conflict between the decision to obtain an abortion from a minor adolescent and the nurse, there may be the following solution.
Teen Abortion: Legal and Ethical Implications The second legal implication is that the patient has the right to medical privacy and confidentiality, and the doctor may not be able to legally tell the patient’s mother about the pregnancy or abortion without […]
Abortion as a Medical Necessity Moreover, in case of fetal death, abnormalities, ectopic pregnancy, or harm to the woman’s health, it is obligatory to follow the recommendations of doctors who objectively assess the situation. Hence, individual factors influence the development […]
Abortion Ban: Ethical Controversies and History of Laws Abortion bans are the attempt to restrict the rights of women to procure an abortion when needed. On the other hand, arguments against the abortion ban focus on the bodily autonomy of women and the […]
Impact of Abortion Bans on Black Women Black women and other females of color will be disproportionately affected by the United States Supreme Court’s ruling to invalidate the right to an abortion as guaranteed by the Constitution.
The Problem of Late-Term Abortion Late-term abortion is associated with high-risk complications for the mother and inhumane treatment of the unborn child. There is an immense violation of the child’s rights if abortion is to be done after 20 weeks […]
Abortion With Limitations: Discussion Such insights support the notion that such a medical practice could be pursued in a professional manner when the life of the mother appears to be at risk.
Abortion and Mental Health as Controversial Issues There have been issues related to the use of face masks and the number of cases of infected people. The topic of autism is a huge controversy due to denial or a lack of awareness.
Philosophical Reasoning About Deliberately Induced Abortion The philosophical discussion about the relationship between the right to life and bodily autonomy has become especially aggravated in the modern world.
The Abortion Theme in Society and Literature The author does not directly mention whether the couple or the parent had opted for abortion but relating to how society handles unwanted pregnancy, the thought must have crossed people’s minds, and that is how […]
Abortion: Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Positions Traditionally, those concerned with the abortion dilemma take one of two positions – pro-life, in which it is required to keep the fetus alive, and pro-choice, following which a woman has the right to end […]
Nursing Ethics Regarding Abortion Currently, several articles exist that highlight different facets of this issue in nursing, including the ability of nurses to object to abortion, their confrontation with the law, and their perception of specific types of abortion.
The Government Stance on Abortion as an Ethical Issue Throughout the years, the practice has been both legalized and prohibited in the US, with the government’s shift in attitudes being central to the ambiguity of the issue.
Is Abortion Moral From Kantian Standpoint? The difficulties in using Kantian deontology to discuss the morality of abortion are defining whether the fetus is a human, and the role ethics play in actual decision-making.
Abortion of a Fetus With Disability It is worth paying attention to the fact that it is precise because of such things that terminations of pregnancy occur so that a person does not come into contact with obvious prejudices still actively […]
Pro-Abortion Arguments and Justification In general, terminating a pregnancy is the key to a woman’s prosperity, social and moral well-being, and ability to control the future.
Law of Interest: Abortion Restrictions In the current paper, I will discuss the Texas Senate Bill 8, which is the legislation related to abortion restrictions. Therefore, the bill is interesting from the standpoint of ethical considerations, which are double-natured.
Researching of Abortion Rights The authors of the three articles support my viewpoint by depicting the health-related and ethical risks that may take place if abortion laws continue to be restrictive.
Aspects Against Abortion Rights Having reviewed both the supporters and opponents of abortion in the legal and ethical contexts, the writers express their pro-life views, saying that life should be respected while offering their ideas on the aforementioned contexts.
Religious Beliefs and Medical Ethics: The Dilemma of Abortion in Cuban Society The process of giving birth to a child is considered a holiday for Cubans, and the family supports the woman after giving birth in every possible way.
Legislative Powers in Texas: Case of Abortions In this particular situation, the Speaker of the House supports my position in the role of trustee, but here the position of the lieutenant governor is much more critical since the bill is heard in […]
Abortion Backlash and Leadership Issues Although the issue of abortion in the United States remains one of the weightiest issues, with a high possibility of affecting the well-being of the people, it has been entirely politicized.
Anti-Abortion Laws: The Roe v. Wade Case Therefore, the Roe case is similar to the Griswold case, making the use of the latter as a precedent justifiable. The precedent case in Roe v.
Majority Opinion on Abortion Legalization vs. Prohibition Abortion is not the result of a nation’s historical or even cultural experience but merely the result of the adoption of restrictions.
The “Why Abortion Is Immoral” Article by Don Marquis Don Marquis gives a different argument regarding the immorality of abortion from the standard anti-abortion argument in his “Why Abortion Is Immoral” article.
Judith Jarvis Thomson on Women’s Right to Abortion The most serious objection to Thompson’s argument might be the one addressing abortion as a killing of a child, given that the fetus is considered a human being from the moment of conception.
The Right to Abortion: Childless Women The issue of inferential statistics in this example is motivated by considering the possibility of extrapolating results from the sample to the general population in the context of the population mean, i.e, no children for […]
Abortion and Women’s Right to Control Their Bodies However, the decision to ban abortions can be viewed as illegal, unethical, and contradicting the values of the 21st century. In such a way, the prohibition of abortion is a serious health concern leading to […]
Role of Abortion Policies Discussion The introduction of regulation and informed consent measures in the case of abortion policies is feasible from the perspective of eliminating health risks for the population.
Abortion-Related Racial Discrimination in the US In spite of being a numerical minority, Black women in the U.S.resort to abortion services rather often compared to the White population.
Should Abortions Be Illegal as Form of Homicide? When it comes to the difference between my opinion and the status quo, I believe that abortions cannot be considered a form of homicide and cannot be persecuted.
Abortions: Abortions Stigmatization Another issue regards the unavailability of abortions and the consequences of women being denied in abortions, and the necessity of choice for women to terminate or not terminate a pregnancy.
Socio-Psychological Factors of Abortion in Women of Different Age Groups It is necessary to conduct a theoretical analysis of the pregnancy termination problem, reflected in psychological research. In addition, it is essential to improve the state of social stability.
Women in Marriage & Sex, Abortion, and Birth Control The historical period chosen is from the eighteenth to the twentieth century to demonstrate the advancement of social structures for women.
Constitutional Issues of Abortion Rights Constitution, regulating the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, laid the legal basis for the practical implementation of the American concept of civil rights. The amendments that were passed later on the base of the […]
Abortion Trends in the United States The history of the legalization of abortion in the United States has a history of several decades and is still the problem of reproductive rights today is quite acute.
Texas Abortion Laws for Victims of Sexual Assault A female will have approximately two weeks in the law to evaluate her situation, verify the conception with a test, determine how to handle the pregnancy, and undergo an abortion.
Discussion of Abortion Accesion for Women Other individuals perceive abortion as a rather reasonable and necessary procedure that should exist as a part of healthcare and be accessible to the women who refuse to give birth to a child due to […]
A Controversial Process of Abortion Abortion is morally wrong and should not occur at any stage of human life because it only deprives the fetus of a right to life.
The Mother and the Challenges of Abortion In conclusion, it is clear that despite having procured abortions in the past, she wanted to be a mother to her children.
Abortion Politics and Moral Concerns Supporters of the third position think that abortion is a form of killing a person since the embryo is a person with the right to life from the moment of conception.
“On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion” Article by Warren In the first section of the paper, Mary Ann Warren suggests that it is impossible to establish whether abortion is morally permissible, provided one accepts that the fetus is a being with a full right […]
Abortion on the Grounds of Disability Removing a fetus from the woman’s womb results in death which is contrary to the morals of the community that is against killing.
Abortion: The Role of Nursing Staff In addition, the task of the nurse may be to inform the patient about the abortion process and its possible consequences. Medical personnel must respect the decision and rights of a woman who decides to […]
Abortion and Its Physical and Psychological Effects Physiological and physical disorders that may develop in the long run due to abortion have a wide range of unfavorable consequences.
Discussion of Abortion Rights Aspects 1, 2017, pp. It would be best used to illustrate the argument in favor of abortion rights based on the [regnant women’s right to health, which is its major strength.
Do We Need to Legalize Abortions? Therefore, every person should take a moment to research this uncomfortable subject and think about the consequences of unsafe and illegal abortion for women, children, and society.
Ethical Dilemma of Abortion Triumphalism In this issue and other matters, the affected person’s experience may not be a determining factor for the expression of opinion but is unique.
The Texas Abortion Law: A Signal of War on Women’s Rights and Bodies The purpose of this paper is to examine the structure and implications of the Texas Abortion Law in order to demonstrate its flaws.
Abortion and Menstrual Health and Society’s Views Limited resources, menstrual materials, and access to facilities are often a result of the lack of policy dedicated to the sexual health of individuals.
The Problem of Abortion in Today’s World Therefore, the choice of the topic of late abortion is justified because of the importance and need to cover this issue.
Abortion in the Context of Ethics and Laws The aim of this paper is to analyze abortion in the context of the law, ethics, and human rights and to identify the solution to the issue.
Societal Approach to Abortion at Various Levels Due to its relevance in society, the issue of abortion has those affirmative, the proposers, and those who think that abortion is a vice against humanity and unethical, the opposers.
The Problem of Abortion: Key Aspects Abortion should not be permitted because any procedure that results in the termination of pregnancy before viability is contrary to the religious idea.
The Issue of Prohibitions on Abortions in Texas I want to talk about the indifference to women’s problems on the part of those who have vowed to be the guardians of justice in our country.
Abortion as a Modern-Day Dilemma for the US Community For this reason, the right for abortion must be seen as the integral part of a system of human rights, specifically, those that must be given solely to women based on the reality of their […]
Abortion: Ethical and Religious Aspects From the Christian perspective, the miracle of human life is the most valuable gift, as the creation of human beings in imago Dei allows them to experience the blessings of life and exercising the service […]
The Ethical Dilemma on Abortion From the perspective of the Christian philosophy, a person is a product and manifestation of the love of God, hence the sanctity of any human life.
“What I Saw at the Abortion” by Richard Selzer This sight made Selzer imagine that the fetus was struggling with the needle in this way, that he was scared and hurt, that he was trying to save itself.
Abortion: Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Argumentation To convince the States to provide access to abortion services for women legally, the article’s author refers to standards of human rights to health and other fundamental human rights. The article’s author refers to international […]
The Effects of Age and Other Personal Characteristics on Abortion Attitudes This is tantamount to seeking a face-saving compromise where the core issues are in black and white and is similar to the uncompromising stands of those for and against homosexual marriage; of pederasts, pedophiles and […]
Supporting the Women Undergoing Abortion One in every five pregnancies in the world results in abortions. The main aim of the paper is to study the perceptions of nurses attending to abortion patients.
The Politics of Abortion in Modern Day Jamaica In the first part of the dissertation, the influence of the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 was discussed on abortion practices and laws around the world, including Jamaica.
Abortion as Moral and Ethical Dilemma Despite the conflicting approaches to solving the moral and ethical dilemma of abortion, experts agree that it is possible to reduce the severity of the problem with the help of more excellent sexual education of […]
Regarding Abortion vs. Adoption In such cases, the couple, or more specifically, the woman is forced to face the reality of her situation and make a decision that will definitely affect the rest of her life.
Class Action Against the Enforcement of Texas Abortion The specific grounds of inconsistency are that the laws seek to prohibit an attempt to obtain or the actual procurement of an abortion regardless of the circumstances with the exception of the special circumstance of […]
Ethics in Health Care-Pro-Abortion There has been myriad of reported cases of failure to uphold the integrity of the unborn and the possible health related problems that would affect a mother’s health especially in the event of unsuccessful abortion.
The Benefits of Declining an Abortion Procedure The women may feel that they do not deserve the love of their children, and a sincere act such s a child refusing to suckle is perceived as the child directing hatred to the mother […]
Hills Like White Elephants. Abortion or Breakup It is used to demonstrate the stalemate in the couples’ relationships the necessity to choose between an abortion and a breakup.
Abortion: An Ethical Dilemma and Legal Position The core concerns in the controversy are whether women should have the right to decide to terminate a pregnancy or whether the unborn child has the right to life.
Parental Consent in Minors’ Abortions Thus, the parents or guardians of the teenage girl ought to be aware of the planned abortion and explain the possible consequences of abortion to the girl.
Ethics and Reproduction Health: Surrogacy, Multiple Pregnancies, Abortion When the child is born, the contracting woman becomes the mother of the child, but she is not a biological mother because the child has the genes of the husband and the surrogate mother.
Induced and Spontaneous Abortion and Breast Cancer Incidence Among Young Women There is also no question as to whether those who had breast cancer was only as a result of abortion the cohort study does not define the total number of women in population.
Abortion-Related-Maternal Death in Dominican Republic There is need to focus the effort in pressuring the lawmakers to respect the rights of women. The Dominican law prohibits women from abortion even the life of woman and the child is in danger.
How Do Abortion Laws and Regulations Affect Anti-Abortion Violence? Moreover, support for anti-abortion violence can also be considered as a political weapon against women’s rights that is linked to the tolerance of violence against women.
Benefits of Abortion Overview Therefore, although some believe that abortion is equal to murder, many are still for abortion because it allows women to have control over their bodies, achieve full potential, and avoid engaging in hazardous abortion methods.
Abortion: Ethical Dilemma in Pope John Paul II’s View This paper tries to examine the abortion ethical dilemma from the lens of the Pope’s thoughts and proposals. Towards the end of the 20th century, new ideas and thoughts began to emerge in different parts […]
Abortion Techniques and Ban in Nicaragua The case of Nicaragua has shown to be particularly challenging as the country’s leaders are adhering to the patriarchal worldview that does not consider the rights and the health of women, and the importance of […]
How Christians View Abortion There are people who claim that the act of abortion is okay since it does not amount to the death of a live being.
Abortion and the Theory of Act Utilitarianism One possible philosophical approach to the problem of choice in such sensitive issues as abortion is the theory of Utilitarianism measuring the moral value of the action.
Teen Pregnancy: Abortion Rates Rise In the spotlight was the matter of teen pregnancy since teen births and abortion are both consequences of the former. That teen pregnancy rates fell in the 1990s and rose in the middle of this […]
Abortion and Its Side Effects in the United States One of the most dominant restrictions in the 1992 ruling is that parents are supposed to be involved in the decision making platform before an abortion can be carried out.
Cider House Rules Movie and Abortion However, upon raping her own daughter and making her pregnant, a reason was introduced for Homer to follow the path of his mentor as he becomes an abortionist for the first time.
Maryland State Bill on Abortion According to the bill, women are supposed to see the ultrasound image in the uterus before an abortion is performed on them.
Legalizing Abortion in the USA: Pros and Cons Since abortion was legalized in the US in the year 1973, the rates of abortion have gone up to approximately 1.
Pro-Choice: The Issue of Abortion Abortion has become a highly debatable issue in the United States because of the ethics and morality involved in the act and the possibility of resorting to it in an elective manner.
The Ethics of Abortion: Discussion The essay first examines the philosophical and religious concept of life and how the decision to abort affects the right to life of the fetus as also the existential dilemma that may arise when a […]
Is Abortion Right or Wrong: A Dilemma The supporters of abortion feel that a woman should be given the chance to decide on abortion as being pregnant and having a baby involves dealing with many consequences.
Medical Ethics. Should Abortion Be Banned? However, in the present situation of the world in general and the United States in particular, there is no doubt that abortion is a bad practice that deserves to be banned in all cases except […]
Legalities of Carrying Out Abortion Discussion This led to the emergence of such groupings as pro-life, who advocate for the consideration of abortion as murder, and pro-choice who are of the view that women should have the right of choice of […]
Issue of Abortion Abortion in Islam and Christianity This law justifies the humanity of the unborn baby and places the child in the same level of an adult being who has caused the miscarriage.
Abortion Is Legal but Is It Ethical? It is not difficult to understand how God’s words can be considered open to analysis but the difficulty of the abortion issue is that the breadth of the interpretation is very wide.
Ethical Problem of Abortion However, the major point of contention has not been whether the mother is the victim or not; but more on where does the fetus really attain the status of a person with rights and the […]
Abortions and Birth Control As a result the overall mortality of women increases in the countries where legal abortions take place. The general point of view in decreasing the number of abortions is the use of contraceptives as a […]
Abortion as an Unmerciful and Irresponsible Act Abortion is a very big risk to the health of the woman who opts to undergo an abortion. The biggest risk is to the life of the woman who opts for an abortion.
Abortion in Islamic View If a woman finds that she is pregnant, and does not want to be, what is the best way out for her, the potential baby that she is carrying, and all the other people concerned […]
Factors Contributing to the Decline in Abortion A considerable decline in abortion has been witnessed and I propose to assess the factors that have contributed to the decline in abortion. The next is the reason for the decline in the number of […]
Bioethics. When Abortion Is Morally Permissible Abortion as we all know is the deliberate removal of a foetus from the womb of a female resulting in the death of the foetus.
Abortion Debate: Overview of Both Positions Daniel Oliver appears to be the supporter of the pro-life side of the debate, even though he does not impose his opinion on the reader and does not write that abortion is wrong.
Abortion: Strengths and Limitations They believe that it is the right of a woman to have an abortion when they want to, and they should also not be forced to have an abortion if they want to give birth.
Importance of Legalizing of Abortions Three of the most common reasons why women choose abortion is that they do not have the financial resources to raise a child, the others feel that they are not ready to have a child, […]
Ethical Issues of Counseling: Abortion and Divorce Personal values and beliefs, world views, and attitudes of both a counselor and a client have a great impact on the therapeutic relationship and effective treatment.
Contemporary Argument on Abortion Review Abortion is treated differently as some find it a moral crime, others think that it is a reasonable way out from the unwanted pregnancy situation, and there is also a viewpoint that abortion is the […]
Abortion: Premeditated Murder or a Reasonable Way Out? Speaking of the second point the supporters of abortion have, we should say that they find abortion as the mother’s attempt to protect the unborn child from the various hardship she will fail to fight.
Women’s Health Issues: Abortion Reasons and Laws As one can see, the physical, psychological, and social risks of limiting access to abortion or proposing hostile policies are apparent.
View of Abortion: The Question of Human Life and Death In order to describe the question of abortion it is important to define and explain it.”Abortion’ as a ‘spontaneous or induced termination of pregnancy”, and “miscarriage’ as the ‘the spontaneous loss of an early pregnancy […]
Unsafe Abortions Concepts Analysis The overall attitudes to abortion were negative, and women who succeeded in aborting pregnancy faced opposition from their partners, social ostracism, and quasi-legal sanctions.
New Jersey Bill A495 on Abortion This paper aims to review the New Jersey Bill A495, the differences in the legislation process between New Jersey and other states, provide a personal position on the issue of abortion, and discuss the impact […]
Social Work Framework for the Abortion Seeking Experience In countries that do allow abortion, the law has to be adhered to and I would have to do the abortion or give the needed advice despite my ethical or religious beliefs.
The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in the United States What is the association between the appropriateness of specific abortion services and various clinical circumstances? What are the physical and mental health effects of abortion?
The Abortion Debate: The Moral Status of the Fetus All arguments about abortion do not come down to the question of what is the moral status of the fetus since there are other aspects involved, including the health conditions of the mother, the fetus’s […]
Abortion in Ireland: Law and Public Opinion Abortion in Ireland is a highly controversial issue despite the May 26, 2018 landslide victory, which saw the repealing of the Eighth Amendment of the constitution to allow women to abort albeit under certain circumstances.
Anti-Abortion Social Movements and Legislators’ Role In the described cases, the main task for the representatives is to make law as flexible as possible, and this is one of the most complicated things to do.
The Politics of Abortion The second entry will be on the politics of abortion in the last year. In 2017 the politics of abortion had changed significantly compared to that of 2003.
Abortion Is Too Complex to Feel All One Way About In her article “Abortion Is Too Complex to Feel All One Way About” that appeared in the New York Times, Anna Quindlen attracts the attention of the global community to one of the most controversial […]
The Last Abortion Clinic
Why Abortion Is Immoral?
Abortion, Its Causes and Psychological Problems
Abortion Debates of Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Parties
Abortion as a Constitutional Right of US Women
Is Abortion Morally Justified?
Abortion Debate: Immoral Aspect of Pregnancy Termination
Abortion Counseling and Psychological Support
Teenage Pregnancy, Abortion, and Sex Education
Barriers to Access to Abortion Services
Anti-Abortion Legislation and Services in Texas
Elective Abortion For and Against
Should Abortions Be Legal?
Abortion Rights: Roe vs. Wade Case
Abortion as a Crime and the Fight Against It
Canadian vs. American Post-Abortion Care
Abortion: Quality of Life and Genetic Abnormalities
Abortion in the Middle East
Abortion Practice in the Middle East
The Minimum Hourly Wages and the Abortions
Conflicting Viewpoints: Should Abortion Be Legal?
“The Last Abortion Clinic”: Documentary Analysis
Ethical Dilemma: Political Involvement in Abortion
Legalization of Abortion for Underage Girls
Legalizing Abortion: Advantages and Justification
Abortion Incidence in the United State
Ethics of Abortion: Controversial Issues
“A Defence of Abortion” by Thomson
Social Issues: Abortions Prohibition
Abortion Law Importance in Canada
Abortion: Theories and Moral Issues
Anti- and Pro-Abortion Arguments
A Woman Has A Natural Right To Get An Abortion
Controversial Question About Abortion
Abortion: Pro-Choice and Pro-Life Movement
The Issue of Abortion in the African Continent
State of Abortion Laws
Moral Problems of Abortion
President Reagan’s Thoughts on Abortion
Abortion and Parental Consent
Analysis of Abortion as an Ethical Issue
Ethics in Professional Psychology: Abortion Issue
Abortion as a Health Ethics Issue
Abortion as a Current Public Policy Issue
A Call to Legalize Abortion
Should Canada Have An Abortion Law?
Abortion’s Merits and Demerits of in the Global Perspectives
Freedom of Women to Choose Abortion
Compare and Contrast Analysis Socio-Political and Moral Agenda of Abortion
Abortions Legal in the U.S.A.
Abortion: Analysis of Pro-Abortion Arguments
The Role of US Government on Abortions
Exploiting Nazism in Abortion Debate
Abortion Principles – Case of George and Linda
Is Self-Defense Abortion Permissible?
Africa Is Not Ready to Embrace Abortion
The Ethics of Abortion
The Debate About Abortion
Moral Controversies of Abortion
The Issue of Abortion
The Case Against Legalization of Abortion
The Burning Debate on Abortion
Teen Abortion: Understanding the Risks
Moral Issues in the Abortion
Conflicting Views on Abortion
Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Sides of Abortion
No More Abortion: Anti-Abortion Debate
The Right to Abortion
The Problem of Legality or Illegality of Terminating Pregnancy (Abortion)
Abortion and Its Effects
Debating the Issue of Abortion
The True Extremist on Abortion: The Analysis of Tom Trinkon’s Essay
The Problems of Abortion in Modern Society
Social Problem of Abortion: Dealing With Media
Abortion as a Controversial Issue
How Christians Respond to the Issue of Abortion?
Did Legalizing Abortion Reduce Crime Rate in the US?
Does Abortion Have Severe Psychological Effects?
Does Increased Abortion Lead To Lower Crime?
Does Natural Law Allow Abortion?
What Are Economic Incentives for Sex-Selective Abortion in India?
How Christians Might Put Their Beliefs About Abortion Into Action?
How Christian Teachings May Be Used in a Discussion About Abortion?
How Abortion Laws Have Changed Around the World?
How Are Religious and Ethical Principles Used in the Abortion?
How Has Abortion and Birth Control Affected the 20th and 21st Century?
How Roman Catholics Might Put Their Beliefs About Abortion Into Practice?
How Useful Are Kantian Ethics for Drawing Conclusions About Abortion?
How Women Are Psychologically Impacted by Abortion?
What Are the Ethical Issues Raised With Abortion?
Who Should Decide the Legality of Abortion?
Why Abortion Should Remain Legal and With Limitations?
Why Has Abortion Created Serious Debates and Controversies Among the Mainline?
Why the Government Should Ban Abortion?
Women Should Have the Right to Have Abortion?
Human Development Research Ideas
Parenting Research Topics
Parent Essay Ideas
Family Titles
Affordable Care Act Essay Titles
Women’s Rights Titles
Reproductive Health Essay Titles
Health Promotion Research Topics
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, March 2). 245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/

"245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." IvyPanda , 2 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples'. 2 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/.

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

Publications
Our Methods
Short Reads
Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

Broad Public Support for Legal Abortion Persists 2 Years After Dobbs

By more than 2 to 1, americans say medication abortion should be legal, table of contents.

Other abortion attitudes
Overall attitudes about abortion
Americans’ views on medication abortion in their states
How statements about abortion resonate with Americans
Acknowledgments
The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ views on the legality of abortion, as well as their perceptions of abortion access. For this analysis, we surveyed 8,709 adults from April 8 to 14, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for the report and its methodology .

Nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a national right to abortion, a majority of Americans continue to express support for abortion access.

Chart shows Majority of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases

About six-in-ten (63%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. This share has grown 4 percentage points since 2021 – the year prior to the 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe.

The new Pew Research Center survey, conducted April 8-14, 2024, among 8,709 adults, surfaces ongoing – and often partisan – divides over abortion attitudes:

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (85%) overwhelmingly say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with near unanimous support among liberal Democrats.
By comparison, Republicans and Republican leaners (41%) are far less likely to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. However, two-thirds of moderate and liberal Republicans still say it should be.

Chart shows Partisan divide over abortion has widened over the past decade

Since before Roe was overturned, both parties have seen a modest uptick in the share who say abortion should be legal.

As in the past, relatively few Americans (25%) say abortion should be legal in all cases, while even fewer (8%) say it should be illegal in all cases. About two-thirds of Americans do not take an absolutist view: 38% say it should be legal in most cases, and 28% say it should be illegal in most cases.

Related: Americans overwhelmingly say access to IVF is a good thing

Women’s abortion decisions

Chart shows A majority of Americans say the decision to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman; about a third say embryos are people with rights

A narrow majority of Americans (54%) say the statement “the decision about whether to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman” describes their views extremely or very well. Another 19% say it describes their views somewhat well, and 26% say it does not describe their views well.

Views on an embryo’s rights

About a third of Americans (35%) say the statement “human life begins at conception, so an embryo is a person with rights” describes their views extremely or very well, while 45% say it does not describe their views well.

But many Americans are cross-pressured in their views: 32% of Americans say both statements about women’s decisions and embryos’ rights describe their views at least somewhat well.

Abortion access

About six-in-ten Americans in both parties say getting an abortion in the area where they live would be at least somewhat easy, compared with four-in-ten or fewer who say it would be difficult.

Chart shows About 6 in 10 Americans say it would be easy to get an abortion in their area

However, U.S. adults are divided over whether getting an abortion should be easier or harder:

31% say it should be easier for someone to get an abortion in their area, while 25% say it should be harder. Four-in-ten say the ease of access should be about what it is now.
48% of Democrats say that obtaining an abortion should be easier than it is now, while just 15% of Republicans say this. Instead, 40% of Republicans say it should be harder (just 11% of Democrats say this).

As was the case last year, views about abortion access vary widely between those who live in states where abortion is legal and those who live in states where it is not allowed.

For instance, 20% of adults in states where abortion is legal say it would be difficult to get an abortion where they live, but this share rises to 71% among adults in states where abortion is prohibited.

Medication abortion

Americans say medication abortion should be legal rather than illegal by a margin of more than two-to-one (54% vs. 20%). A quarter say they are not sure.

Like opinions on the legality of abortion overall, partisans differ greatly in their views of medication abortion:

Republicans are closely split but are slightly more likely to say it should be legal (37%) than illegal (32%). Another 30% aren’t sure.
Democrats (73%) overwhelmingly say medication abortion should be legal. Just 8% say it should be illegal, while 19% are not sure.

Across most other demographic groups, Americans are generally more supportive than not of medication abortion.

Chart shows Younger Americans are more likely than older adults to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases

Across demographic groups, support for abortion access has changed little since this time last year.

Today, roughly six-in-ten (63%) say abortion should be legal in all (25%) or most (38%) cases. And 36% say it should be illegal in all (8%) or most (28%) cases.

While differences are only modest by gender, other groups vary more widely in their views.

Race and ethnicity

Support for legal abortion is higher among Black (73%) and Asian (76%) adults compared with White (60%) and Hispanic (59%) adults.

Compared with older Americans, adults under 30 are particularly likely to say abortion should be legal: 76% say this, versus about six-in-ten among other age groups.

Those with higher levels of formal education express greater support for legal abortion than those with lower levels of educational attainment.

About two-thirds of Americans with a bachelor’s degree or more education (68%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared with six-in-ten among those without a degree.

White evangelical Protestants are about three times as likely to say abortion should be illegal (73%) as they are to say it should be legal (25%).

By contrast, majorities of White nonevangelical Protestants (64%), Black Protestants (71%) and Catholics (59%) say abortion should be legal. And religiously unaffiliated Americans are especially likely to say abortion should be legal (86% say this).

Partisanship and ideology

Democrats (85%) are about twice as likely as Republicans (41%) to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

But while more conservative Republicans say abortion should be illegal (76%) than legal (27%), the reverse is true for moderate and liberal Republicans (67% say legal, 31% say illegal).

By comparison, a clear majority of conservative and moderate Democrats (76%) say abortion should be legal, with liberal Democrats (96%) overwhelmingly saying this.

Views of abortion access by state

About six-in-ten Americans (58%) say it would be easy for someone to get an abortion in the area where they live, while 39% say it would be difficult.

Chart shows Americans vary widely in their views over how easy it would be to get an abortion based on where they live

This marks a slight shift since last year, when 54% said obtaining an abortion would be easy. But Americans are still less likely than before the Dobbs decision to say obtaining an abortion would be easy.

Still, Americans’ views vary widely depending on whether they live in a state that has banned or restricted abortion.

In states that prohibit abortion, Americans are about three times as likely to say it would be difficult to obtain an abortion where they live as they are to say it would be easy (71% vs. 25%). The share saying it would be difficult has risen 19 points since 2019.

In states where abortion is restricted or subject to legal challenges, 51% say it would be difficult to get an abortion where they live. This is similar to the share who said so last year (55%), but higher than the share who said this before the Dobbs decision (38%).

By comparison, just 20% of adults in states where abortion is legal say it would be difficult to get one. This is little changed over the past five years.

Americans’ attitudes about whether it should be easier or harder to get an abortion in the area where they live also varies by geography.

Chart shows Americans living in states with abortion bans or restrictions are more likely to say it should be easier than it currently is to obtain an abortion

Overall, a decreasing share of Americans say it should be harder to obtain an abortion: 33% said this in 2019, compared with 25% today.

This is particularly true of those in states where abortion is now prohibited or restricted.

In both types of states, the shares of Americans saying it should be easier to obtain an abortion have risen 12 points since before Roe was overturned, as the shares saying it should be harder have gradually declined.

By comparison, changes in views among those living in states where abortion is legal have been more modest.

While Americans overall are more supportive than not of medication abortion (54% say it should be legal, 20% say illegal), there are modest differences in support across groups:

Chart shows Across most groups, more say medication abortion should be legal than illegal in their states

Younger Americans are somewhat more likely to say medication abortion should be legal than older Americans. While 59% of adults ages 18 to 49 say it should be legal, 48% of those 50 and older say the same.
Asian adults (66%) are particularly likely to say medication abortion should be legal compared with White (55%), Black (51%) and Hispanic (47%) adults.
White evangelical Protestants oppose medication abortion by about two-to-one (45% vs. 23%), with White nonevangelicals, Black Protestants, Catholics and religiously unaffiliated adults all being more likely than not to say medication abortion should be legal.
Republicans are closely divided over medication abortion: 37% say it should be legal while 32% say it should be illegal. But similar to views on abortion access overall, conservative Republicans are more opposed (43% illegal, 27% legal), while moderate and liberals are more supportive (55% legal, 14% illegal).

Just over half of Americans (54%) say “the decision about whether to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman” describes their views extremely or very well, compared with 19% who say somewhat well and 26% who say not too or not at all well.

Chart shows Wide partisan divides over whether pregnant women should be the sole deciders of abortion decisions and whether an embryo is a person with rights

Democrats (76%) overwhelmingly say this statement describes their views extremely or very well, with just 8% saying it does not describe their views well.

Republicans are more divided: 44% say it does not describe their views well while 33% say it describes them extremely or very well. Another 22% say it describes them somewhat well.

Fewer Americans (35%) say the statement “human life begins at conception, so an embryo is a person with rights” describes their views extremely or very well. Another 19% say it describes their views somewhat well while 45% say it describes them not too or not at all well.

(The survey asks separately whether “a fetus is a person with rights.” The results are roughly similar: 37% say that statement describes their views extremely or very well.)

Republicans are about three times as likely as Democrats to say “an embryo is a person with rights” describes their views extremely or very well (53% vs. 18%). In turn, Democrats (66%) are far more likely than Republicans (25%) to say it describes their views not too or not at all well.

Some Americans are cross-pressured about abortion

Chart shows Nearly a third of U.S. adults say embryos are people with rights and pregnant women should be the ones to make abortion decisions

When results on the two statements are combined, 41% of Americans say the statement about a pregnant woman’s right to choose describes their views at least somewhat well , but not the statement about an embryo being a person with rights. About two-in-ten (21%) say the reverse.

But for nearly a third of U.S. adults (32%), both statements describe their views at least somewhat well.

Just 4% of Americans say neither statement describes their views well.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Fresh data delivery Saturday mornings

Sign up for The Briefing

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

Partisanship & Issues

Support for legal abortion is widespread in many places, especially in Europe

Public opinion on abortion, americans overwhelmingly say access to ivf is a good thing, what the data says about abortion in the u.s., nearly a year after roe’s demise, americans’ views of abortion access increasingly vary by where they live, most popular, report materials.

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries

Research Topics

Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

Most Americans don’t know two key facts about pregnancy, including how they are dated and how long a trimester is — and this could matter, as a growing number of states place restrictions on abortion.

Florida enacted a new law on May 1 that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with a few exceptions — including documented rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.

Florida joins the majority of Southern states that now have complete bans or highly restrictive abortion laws, enacted since the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to get an abortion in June 2022. Many of the restrictive laws ban abortion after a set number of weeks.

Anti-abortion rights groups, such as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, have called the six-week abortion ban the gold standard in abortion policy. Florida Republicans supporting the bill have labeled it a reasonable compromise between a full abortion ban and few abortion restrictions.

Some OB-GYNs have explained that many women do not even know they are pregnant at six weeks . Research shows that women on average find out they are pregnant at 5½ weeks. About 23% do not know until seven weeks of pregnancy or later.

So, do Americans, including those enacting six-week bans, actually understand how the timing or dating of pregnancy works?

We are scholars of political science , gender and public opinion and are writing a book about public opinion on abortion after the Supreme Court’s reversal of the federal right to get an abortion in June 2022.

How does pregnancy work?

To gain insights into this issue, we developed a few pregnancy questions and included them in a research survey in late September 2023. The survey had 1,356 respondents, who were broadly representative of the U.S. population. The respondents’ median age was 46. Approximately 49% of these people were men, while 70% were white and 29% were college graduates. Meanwhile, 43% of them were Democrats, and 38% were Republicans.

The first question asked respondents how pregnancies are dated. The correct answer is that pregnancies are dated using the first day of the woman’s last menstrual period, which is often two to three weeks before conception.

The second question asked about trimesters. Many Americans are familiar with the term trimester, and polling consistently shows that Americans find abortion most acceptable during the first trimester. We asked Americans if they knew approximately how many weeks a trimester was. The correct answer is 13.

Americans’ pregnancy knowledge

We found that only one-third of respondents knew how pregnancy is dated. A majority — approximately 60% — falsely thought that pregnancy is dated from conception or in the weeks since the woman last had sex. Less than one-fourth of the respondents answered both pregnancy knowledge questions correctly.

In our survey, we also asked respondents whether they support a six-week abortion ban. Similar to other national surveys , we find that most Americans oppose strict abortion restrictions — only 35% support six-week bans.

Spend your days with Hayes

Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Importantly, we find that those who support six-week abortion bans are significantly less likely than others to correctly understand the timing of pregnancy. The statistically significant relationship between having low levels of pregnancy timing knowledge and support for a six-week abortion ban holds in analyses controlling for potentially confounding variables.

Some anti-abortion lawmakers have demonstrated their ignorance about pregnancy before. There is, for example, a long history of some anti-abortion politicians saying, incorrectly, that it is extremely rare for a person who is raped to get pregnant. Our survey shows that a large swath of those opposing abortion lack knowledge about the basics of pregnancy.

A gender disparity

Perhaps not surprisingly, women in this survey knew more about pregnancy than men. The question about how pregnancies are dated, for example, was answered correctly by 43% of women compared with only 23% of men. As mentioned above, a majority of Americans incorrectly believe pregnancy is dated from conception, but significantly more men than women think this is true.

This finding is particularly important when considering the gender breakdown of the Florida state lawmakers who approved the six-week ban. Although we do not have data on the pregnancy knowledge of those legislators, we do know that those who voted for the ban were overwhelmingly men .

Florida’s six-week ban will make it much harder for anyone to get abortions there — and it will also affect people in neighboring states who want or need an abortion. In 2023, Florida was home to the closest abortion clinic for 6.4 million women living in the South. In 2023, around 7,700 women from other Southern states, where abortion is now largely banned , traveled to Florida to get abortions.

Overall, our findings raise serious questions about whether Americans without medical training — much like those in our state legislatures — have the necessary knowledge needed to regulate abortion access.

Laurel Elder is a professor of political science at Hartwick College. Mary-Kate Lizotte is a professor of political science at Augusta University. Steven Greene is a professor of political science at North Carolina State University. This essay originally appeared in The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons license.

MORE FOR YOU

ONLY AVAILABLE FOR SUBSCRIBERS

The Tampa Bay Times e-Newspaper is a digital replica of the printed paper seven days a week that is available to read on desktop, mobile, and our app for subscribers only. To enjoy the e-Newspaper every day, please subscribe.

In Idaho, don’t say ‘abortion’? A state law limits teachers at public universities, they say

Idaho's public university professors say a law barring state employees from ‘promoting’ or ‘counseling in favor of’ abortion limits their ability to teach..

Demonstrators gather in front of the Supreme Court as the court hears oral arguments in the case of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on March 26, 2024 in Washington, DC.

This story was published in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity , a newsroom that investigates inequality.

University of Idaho student Bergen Kludt-Painter started school in August 2022, a few months after a U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down Roe v. Wade. Soon after, abortion was banned in Idaho in almost all instances.

The political science major was eager to discuss the precedent-shattering case in class, but, she said, “we talked about everything except for abortion.”

During a political science course on how to write a research paper, her professor said he could not give her feedback on her chosen topic — abortion. The issue didn’t come up in her other political science classes either, even as state after state changed their abortion laws. Nor did abortion get mentioned in her Introduction to Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies course.

“It wasn’t discussed,” she said, “which I found odd, personally, because it feels like something that would be relevant to talk about in a class like that.”

But few, if any, public university professors in Idaho are talking about or assigning readings on abortion these days. That’s due to a 2021 law that makes it illegal for state employees to “promote abortion” or “counsel in favor of abortion.” Professors have said those two phrases put them at risk of violating the law, known as the No Public Funds for Abortion Act , just for discussing abortion in class. The possible penalties include significant fines and even prison time.

Six named University of Idaho professors and two faculty unions filed a lawsuit against the state in August for violating their First Amendment right to free speech and academic freedom and their 14 th Amendment right to a clearly worded law. Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union are representing the professors.

“The more I heard about it, the more worried I was that I really can't teach my class in a responsible way without putting myself at risk,” said Aleta Quinn, an associate professor of philosophy for the University of Idaho and a plaintiff in the case.

Quinn teaches a course in biomedical ethics that typically features readings and class discussions about abortion. When she saw that the highest penalty for breaking the law was 14 years in prison, “I decided I would not — I couldn't — teach the subject of abortion.”

The bulk of the arguments in the case center on the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, which the Supreme Court has interpreted to mean that a statute “so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning” violates a person’s right to fair treatment under the law.

The case also raises an important First Amendment question about protections for academic freedom in America: Are public university professors exempt from laws that could otherwise govern the speech of state employees?

Supreme Court precedent suggests the government has significant leeway to regulate the speech of the people it employs while they are performing their professional duties.

Still, the most recent court opinion on the issue left open the question of how much that speech could be regulated for one key group: public university professors.

“We need not, and for that reason do not, decide whether the analysis we conduct today would apply in the same manner to a case involving speech related to scholarship or teaching,” then Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 2006 majority opinion in Garcetti v. Ceballos .

The Supreme Court has not yet returned to that decision.

“So establishing that legal principle, in and of itself, is an important endeavor for those [Idaho] professors,” said Helen Norton, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Colorado who is not involved in the case.

Interestingly, none of the professors suing in the Idaho case are nursing instructors or even biology professors. They aren’t teaching anyone about the physical nature of abortion. Their concerns, as scholars of subjects like philosophy, political science, gender studies and English, are focused on whether they can speak about abortion as an ethical, political and historical issue.

For example, a sworn statement by an English professor named in the case explained that he used to assign Sallie Tisdale’s 1987 Harper’s Magazine essay, “We Do Abortions Here,” in one of his classes. The essay about her work as a nurse in an abortion clinic explores the complicated morality of helping women end their pregnancies. It’s also considered to be an example of powerful writing. He has now removed it from his syllabus.

Lawyers for the state of Idaho agree that professors fall under a different regulatory framework than other public employees when it comes to what they are permitted to say in the course of their duties. In their motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the state’s attorneys concede that settled law establishes protections for academics’ speech.

A month after the case was filed, Idaho’s attorney general, a defendant in the case, issued a non-binding opinion that the law does not apply to the “teaching or scholarship” of public university professors. If it did, Raul Labrador wrote, “the prohibition would likely be unconstitutional.”

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office declined to respond to repeated requests for an interview.

Republican state Rep. Bruce Skaug, the sponsor of the No Public Funds for Abortion Act, later introduced legislation to create a specific protection for classroom discussion of abortion, but it failed to pass. Skaug did not respond to requests for an interview.

Rather than arguing about the First Amendment claim, lawyers for the state focused on the professors’ assertion that the law is unconstitutionally vague under the 14th Amendment.

“Plaintiffs have alleged that there is a law that prohibits them from teaching college courses concerning abortion, producing scholarship in favor of abortion, and grading papers concerning abortion,” the state’s lawyers write in the November motion to dismiss. “There is no such law in the state of Idaho.”

The state’s attorneys argue that any reasonable reader of the law would see that the statute refers only to the act of advising a specific person to have an abortion. As written, they argue the law could not be interpreted as a prohibition on, say, giving a strong grade on a writing assignment where the student had chosen to make an ethical argument in favor of abortion.

Because of the attorney general’s opinion and the “plain language” in the law, the state’s lawyers say the professors are imagining themselves to be at risk of prosecution when, in reality, no such risk exists.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs disagree. Federal courts have issued rulings with varied interpretations of the word “promote.” And the lawsuit offers numerous hypothetical situations in which a professor could be prosecuted for promoting abortion even if that were not their intent.

Norton, the University of Colorado law professor, said it was reasonable for the professors to question the law’s language.

“That’s shown so far to be the focus of the dispute — what does ‘promoting’ or ‘counseling’ mean?” she said. “And it seems like that’s an important thing to nail down.”

Because there’s no definition of the terms in the law, she said, “there’s absolutely room for folks to argue about whether or not we should be quick or slow to interpret broadly or narrowly.”

The current case challenging Idaho’s No Public Funds for Abortion Act does not directly include the state’s many other public employees, like social workers and school counselors, who are unlikely to qualify for any special First Amendment protections.

Public school teachers in the K-12 system do not have the same level of academic freedom protections as professors, either. But a high school history teacher could face the same concerns that speaking about abortion in class could be construed as either promoting or counseling in favor of it.

However, those employees would no longer have their speech curtailed if the professors prevail and a court strikes the law down.

That matters because Idaho’s restrictions surrounding abortion are so tight at this point that nearly every other action connected to encouraging abortion has been outlawed some other way. At this point, regulating how public employees speak about abortion is arguably the only thing the No Public Funds law still does. Opponents of the law have questioned why the state is fighting to uphold it, if not to limit speech about abortion.

Wendy Heipt, a reproductive rights attorney with Legal Voice who is working on a challenge to Idaho’s ban on helping minors travel to receive abortions without parental consent, calls the state Legislature “extremist.” She worries that the state has become a “testing ground” for the far right.

“You would notice [these laws] in Texas,” where more than 30 million people live, she said, “not Idaho,” home to less than 2 million.

Indeed, copycat travel ban bills restricting the movement of minors seeking an abortion were introduced in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Oklahoma this session, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that works to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights.

No one interviewed for this story had heard about a copycat law that raised the same combination of First and 14th Amendment concerns as Idaho’s No Public Funds measure.

A judge heard the professors’ case in Idaho District Court in April. His decision on whether the preliminary injunction they’ve asked for will be granted is expected soon. The judge could also decide to dismiss the case, as the attorney general’s office has proposed. If the judge doesn’t dismiss the case, he will likely ask both parties to reconvene for another hearing before a final resolution.

In the meantime, professors are continuing to stay quiet about abortion in class.

For someone dedicated to the free exchange of ideas like Quinn, that silence feels wrong. When she started teaching, her goal was to make the world a slightly better place by helping young people learn how to think, not what to think. She feels like she’s not fulfilling her duty to her students by ignoring an ethical debate as relevant to daily life as abortion.

“Philosophy is thinking critically about ideas and concepts and arguments, and considering which arguments are stronger and which are weaker and how they apply and all their implications,” Quinn said. “My goal is to enable people to have the skills to evaluate positions on their own.”

Kludt-Painter, the University of Idaho student, is the president of the Young Democrats. But her issues with the No Public Funds law weren’t about the politics of abortion. It’s an education she wants and feels she is being at least partially denied.

“It's a form of censorship,” she said. “College students should be able to handle hearing about these difficult topics. And educators should be able to discuss them and have a free exchange of ideas without being worried about getting fired or having criminal charges be brought against them.”

Hayden Cassinelli, the vice president of the College Republicans at the University of Idaho, said the topic of abortion came up in one of his classes recently but was "quickly avoided" when a teaching assistant told students he couldn’t discuss it.

Despite Cassinelli’s opposition to abortion, the sophomore education major believes the topic should be discussed in class. He doesn’t think the No Public Funds law prevents such discussions. But he supported his university’s decision to issue guidance to professors in fall 2022, urging them to be cautious when talking about abortion.

"Given many professors' thoughts on abortion — including the fact that some of them may advocate for it and [encourage] a student to commit a crime — a temporary hold on any abortion-related discussion until legal clarity is established is a sound decision," Cassinelli wrote in an email.

Kludt-Painter thinks professors are just trying to protect their jobs when they avoid discussing abortion in class, but she wishes they didn’t feel that way.

“It takes away from the whole academic freedom thing that post-secondary education is supposed to be about,” she said.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Publications
Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

Advanced Search
Journal List
Int J Environ Res Public Health

Factors Influencing Abortion Decision-Making Processes among Young Women

Mónica frederico.

1 International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH), Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium; [email protected]

2 Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, C. P. 1993, Maputo, Mozambique; [email protected]

Kristien Michielsen

Carlos arnaldo, peter decat.

3 Department of Family Medicine and primary health care, Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium; [email protected]

Background: Decision-making about if and how to terminate a pregnancy is a dilemma for young women experiencing an unwanted pregnancy. Those women are subject to sociocultural and economic barriers that limit their autonomy and make them vulnerable to pressures that influence or force decisions about abortion. Objective : The objective of this study was to explore the individual, interpersonal and environmental factors behind the abortion decision-making process among young Mozambican women. Methods : A qualitative study was conducted in Maputo and Quelimane. Participants were identified during a cross-sectional survey with women in the reproductive age (15–49). In total, 14 women aged 15 to 24 who had had an abortion participated in in-depth interviews. A thematic analysis was used. Results : The study found determinants at different levels, including the low degree of autonomy for women, the limited availability of health facilities providing abortion services and a lack of patient-centeredness of health services. Conclusions : Based on the results of the study, the authors suggest strategies to increase knowledge of abortion rights and services and to improve the quality and accessibility of abortion services in Mozambique.

1. Introduction

Abortion among adolescents and youth is a major public health issue, especially in developing countries. Estimates indicate that 2.2 million unplanned pregnancies and 25% (2.5 million) unsafe abortions occur each year, in sub-Saharan Africa, among adolescents [ 1 ]. In 2008, of the 43.8 million induced abortions, 21.6 million were estimated to be unsafe, and nearly all of them (98%) took place in developing countries, with 41% (8.7 million) being performed on women aged 15 to 24 [ 2 ].

The consequences of abortion, especially unsafe abortion, are well documented and include physical complications (e.g., sepsis, hemorrhage, genital trauma), and even death [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. The physical complications are more severe among adolescents than older women and increase the risk of morbidity and mortality [ 6 , 7 ]. However, the detrimental effects of unsafe abortion are not limited to the individual but also affect the entire healthcare system, with the treatment of complications consuming a significant share of resources (e.g., including hospital beds, blood supply, drugs) [ 5 , 8 ].

The decision if and how to terminate a pregnancy is influenced by a variety of factors at different levels [ 9 ]. At the individual level these factors include: their marital status, whether they were the victim of rape or incest [ 10 , 11 ], their economic independence and their education level [ 10 , 12 ]. Interpersonally factors include support from one’s partner and parental support [ 12 ]. Societal determinants include social norms, religion [ 9 , 13 ], the stigma of premarital and extra-marital sex [ 14 ], adolescents’ status, and autonomy within society [ 12 ]. At the organizational level, the existence of sex education [ 10 , 14 ], the health care system, and abortion laws influence the decisions if and where to have an abortion.

Those factors are related to power and (gender) inequalities. They limit young women’s autonomy and make them vulnerable to pressure. Additionally, the situation is exacerbated when there is a lack of clarity and information on abortion status, despite the existence of a progressive law in this regard.

For example, Mozambican law has allowed abortion if the woman’s health is at risk since the 1980s [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. In 2014, a new abortion law was established that broadened the scope of the original law: women are now also allowed to terminate their pregnancy: (1) if they requested it and it is performed during the first 12 weeks; (2) in the first 16 weeks if it was the result of rape or incest, or (3) in the first 24 weeks if the mother’s physical or mental health was in danger or in cases of fetus disease or anomaly. Women younger than 16 or psychically incapable of deciding need parental consent [ 19 , 20 ].

Notwithstanding the progressive abortion laws in Mozambique, hospital-based studies report that unsafe abortion remains one of the main causes of maternal death in Mozambique [ 3 ]. However, hospital cases are only a small share of unsafe abortions in the country. Many women undergo an abortion in illegal and unsafe circumstances for a variety of reasons [ 3 ], such as legal restrictions, the fear of stigma [ 21 , 22 , 23 ], and a lack of knowledge of the availability of abortion services [ 3 , 9 , 23 ].

According to the 2011 Mozambican Demographic Health Survey (DHS), at least 4.5% of all adolescents reported having terminated a pregnancy [ 24 ]. Unpublished data from the records of Mozambican Association for Family Development (AMODEFA) which has a clinic that offers sexual and reproductive health services, including safe abortion, indicate that from 2010 to 2016 a total of 70,895 women had an induced abortion in this clinic, of which 43% were aged 15 to 24. Of the 1500 women that had an induced abortion in the AMODEFA clinic in the first three months of 2017, 27.9% were also in this age group [ 25 ]. These data show the high demand for (safe) abortion among young women.

For all this described above, Mozambique is an interesting place to study this decision-making process; given the changing legal framework, women may have to navigate gray areas in terms of legality, safety, and access when seeking abortion, which is stigmatized but necessary for the health, well-being, and social position of many young women.

The objective of this study is to explore the individual, interpersonal and environmental factors behind the abortion decision-making process. This entails both the decision to have an abortion and the decision on how to have the abortion. By examining fourteen stories of young women with an episode of induced abortion, we contribute to the documentation of the circumstances around the abortion decision making, and also to inform the policymakers on complexity of this issue for, which in turn can contribute to improve the strategies designed to reduce the cases of maternal morbidity and mortality in Mozambique.

2. Materials and Methods

This is an exploratory study using in-depth interview to explore factors related to abortion decision-making in a changing context. As research on this topic is limited, we opted for a qualitative research framework that aims to identify factors influencing this decision-making process.

2.1. Location of the Study

The study was conducted in two Mozambican cities, Maputo and Quelimane. These cities were selected because they registered more abortions than other cities in the same region. According to the 2014 data from the Direcção Nacional de Planificação, 629 and 698 women, respectively, were admitted to the hospital due to induced abortion complications in Maputo and Quelimane [ 26 ]. Furthermore, the two differ radically in terms of culture, with Maputo in the South being patrilineal and Quelimane in the Central Region matrilineal, which could influence the abortion decision-making process. The fieldwork took place between July–August 2016 and January–February 2017.

2.2. Data Collection

The data were collected through in-depth interviews, asking participants about their experiences with induced abortion and what motivated them to get an abortion. To approach and recruit participants ( Figure 1 ), we used the information collected during a cross-sectional survey with women in the reproductive age (15–49), These women were selected randomly applying multistage cluster based on household registers. The survey was designed to understand women’s sexual and reproductive health and included filter questions that allowed us to identify participants who had undergone an abortion. The information sheet and informed consent form for this household survey included information about a possible follow-up study.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is ijerph-15-00329-g001.jpg

The process of recruitment of the participants.

Participants who were within the age-range 15–24 years and who reported having had an abortion were contacted by phone. In this contact, the researcher (MF) introduced herself, reminded the participant of the study she took part in, explained the follow-up study and asked whether she was willing to participate in this. If she did, an appointment was made at a convenient location. Before each interview, we explained to each participant why she was invited to the second interview. Participants were also informed of interview procedures, confidentiality and anonymity in the management of the data, and the possibility to withdraw from the interview at any time. In total 14, young women (15–24) agreed to participate: nine in Maputo and five in Quelimane. Six of them were interviewed twice to explore further aspects that remained unclear after the first interview. The interviews were conducted in Portuguese.

To start the interview, the participant was invited to tell her life history from puberty until the moment when the abortion occurred. During the conversation, we used probing questions to elicit more details. Gradually, we added questions related to the abortion and factors that influenced the decision process. The main questions were related to the pregnancy history, abortion decision-making, and help-seeking behaviour. The guideline was adapted from WHO tools [ 27 , 28 ]. Before the implementation of the guideline, it was discussed first with another Mozambican researcher to see how they fell regarding the question. After those questions were revised or removed from the guideline.

2.3. Data Analysis

The analysis consisted of three steps: transcription, reading, and codification with NVivo version 11(QSR International Pty Ltd., Doncaster, Australia). After an initial reading, one of the authors (MF) developed a coding tree on factors determining the decision-making. A structured thematic analysis was used to make inferences and elicit key emerging themes from the text-based data [ 29 , 30 ]. The coding tree was based on the ecological model, which is a comprehensive framework that emphasizes the interaction between, and interdependence of factors within and across all levels of a health problem since it considers that the behaviour affects and is affected by multiple levels of influence [ 31 , 32 ].

Next, the codes and the classification were discussed among the researchers (Mónica Frederico, Kristien Michielsen, Carlos Arnaldo and Peter Decat). Finally, the data was interpreted, and conclusions were drawn [ 33 ].

2.4. Ethical Consideration

Before the implementation of this research, we obtained ethical approval from the Institutional Committee of the Faculty of Medicine and Nacional Bioethical Committee for Health (IRB00002657). We also asked for the institutional approval of the Minister of Health and authorities at the provincial and community levels. The participants gave their informed consent after the objectives and interview procedures had been explained to them. The participants were informed that they might be contacted and invited, within six months, to participate in another interview.

2.5. Concepts

The providers are the people who carried out the abortion procedure. These may be categorized into skilled and unskilled providers: the former refers to a professional (i.e., nurse or doctor) offering abortion services to a client, while the latter is someone without any medical training. Another concept that requires further explanation is the legal procedure. This corresponds to a set of steps to be followed to comply with the law [ 19 , 20 ]. Specifically, this means that a committee should authorize the induced abortion and an identification document should be available, as well as an informed consent form from the pregnant woman. If the woman is a minor, consent is given by her legal guardian. An ultrasound exam is required to determine the gestational age.

3.1. Characteristics of the Participants

The characteristics of the interviewees are summarized in Table 1 . The 14 participants were aged 17 to 24 years. Eight had completed secondary school, four had achieved the second level of primary school, and two were university students. Almost all (13) were Christian. Five participants were studying, eight were unemployed, and one was working. The median age of their first sexual intercourse was 15.5 years. Participants reported living with one or both parents (12), with their uncle (1) or alone (1). They lived in suburban areas of Maputo and Quelimane, which are slums with poor living conditions. In these areas, most households earn their income through small businesses that also involve child labour (e.g., selling food or drinks).

Socio-demographic characteristics and abortion procedure.

Among the participants, five reported more than one pregnancy. One interviewee first had a stillbirth and then two abortions. Another woman gave birth to a girl and afterward terminated two pregnancies. Two interviewees reported two pregnancies, the first of which was brought to full term and the second one terminated. One woman first had an abortion and afterward gave birth to a child. In short, 14 interviewees in total reported on the experiences and decision-making of 16 abortions. One participant stated that the pregnancy was the consequence of rape. Of the 16 reported abortions, seven were performed after the new law came into force at the end of 2014, and nine were carried out before this time.

3.2. Abortions Stories

In this study, 12 abortions were done by skilled providers and two by unskilled providers. The unskilled providers were a mother and a husband, respectively. None of the cases, whose abortion was done by a skilled provider, included in this study followed the legal procedure.

In the analysis of the interviews, we studied the personal, interpersonal and environmental factors that influenced six different types of abortion stories, see Table 2 : (1) an abortion was performed because the pregnancy was unwanted; (2) an abortion was carried out although the pregnancy was wanted; (3) the abortion was done by an unskilled provider at home; (4) an abortion was carried out by a skilled provider outside the hospital; (5) a particular abortion procedure (medical or chirurgical) was chosen, and (6) the legal procedure was not followed in the hospital. Factors influencing the choice for a particular technical procedure were also examined.

Summary of induced abortion stories. (We changed the table format, please confirm.)

* The result of rape; ** Seven participants; *** six participants.

3.3. Abortion Following an Unwanted Pregnancy

In the stories about unwanted pregnancies, mostly personal factors were mentioned as reasons, with some interviewees stating that they felt unable to be a mother at the time of the pregnancy: “ (It) was at the time that I was taking pills that I got pregnant, and I induced abortion because I was not prepared (for motherhood). ” (24 years)

Some had had a bad experience in the past: “ Maybe I would be abandoned and it would be the same. (Sigh)... I learned with my first pregnancy. ” (23 years)

Also, the existence of another child was mentioned as a reason to have an abortion: “ I got pregnant when I was 20, and I had a baby. When I became pregnant again, my daughter was a child, and I could not have another child. ” (23 years)

For other participants, studies were the main reason why the pregnancy was not wanted: “ He was informed about it, and he said that I should keep it. However, as I wanted to continue my studies, I told him no, no (I) do not. ” (17 years)

At the interpersonal level, a lack of support from the partner was often mentioned as a reason for not wanting the baby: “ He said that he recognizes the paternity, but it is not to keep that pregnancy. ” (22 years)

Women frequently mentioned environmental circumstances related to their poor socio-economic situation: “ I am staying at Mom's house; it is not okay to still be having babies there.” (23 years)

“ At home, we do not have any resources to take care of this child! ” (20 years)

3.4. Abortion Following a Wanted Pregnancy

In these cases, the decision to abort the pregnancy was not made by the woman herself but imposed by others or by the circumstances.

Some participants reported that their parents/family had decided what had to be done: “ They decided while I was at school. If (it) was my decision I would keep it because I wanted it. ” (18 years).

Other young women indicated the refusal of paternity as a reason to terminate the pregnancy.

“ Because my son’s father did not accept the (second) pregnancy. There was a time, we argued with each other, and we terminated the relationship. Later, we started dating again, and I got pregnant. He said it was not possible. ” (21 years)

“ (he) impregnated me and after that, he dumped me, (smiles)… I went to him, and I said that I was pregnant. He said eee: I do not know, that is not my child. ” (20 years).

Some women told the interviewers that they were convinced by their boyfriend to have an abortion: “ I talked to him, and he said okay we are going to have an abortion and I accepted. ” (22 years)

Others mentioned their partner’s indecision and changing attitude as a reason to get an abortion, even though they did want the baby:

“ I told him I was pregnant. First, he said to keep it. (Next) He was different. Sometimes he was calling me, and other times not. I understood that he did not want me. ” (20 years)

The fear of being excluded from their family due to their pregnancy was another reason reported by participants: “ So I went to talk with my older sister, and she said eee, you must abort because daddy will kick you out of our home. ” (20 years)

“ As I am an orphan, and I live with my uncle, they were going to kick me out. No one would assist me. ” (20 years)

3.5. Location of the Abortion: Home-Based Versus Hospital-Based

Two young women reported having had the abortion at home by an unskilled provider. It seems that these unskilled providers than the women (i.e. family members, partner) made the decisions.

“ It was mammy and my sister (who provided the induced abortion services). My sister knows these things. ” (18 years)

“ He (the father of the child) came to my house and took me back to his house. It was that moment when I aborted. ” (21 years)

Of the 16 abortions, seven were performed through health services, by a skilled provider. For some of them, the choice for a health service was influenced by the fact of knowing someone at the health facility.

“ I went to talk to her (friend), and she said that “I have an aunt who works at the hospital, she can help you. Just take money”. ” (20 years)

“ I Already knew who could induce it (abortion). No, I knew that person. I went to the hospital, and I talked to her, (and) she helped me. ” (22 years)

Other participants went to the health facility, but due to the lack of money to pay for an abortion at the facilities they sought help out of the health facility: “ They charged us money that we did not have. The ladies did not want to negotiate anything. I think they wanted 1200 mt (17.1 euros) if I am not wrong. He had a job, but he (boyfriend) did not have that amount of money. ” (22 years)

Some participants reported that they had an abortion outside regular facilities because the health provider recommended going to his house: “ She (mother) was the one who accompanied me. She is the one who knows the doctor. We went to the central hospital, but he (the doctor) was very busy, and he told us to go to his house. ” (17 years)

Others reported the fear of signing a document as a reason to seek help outside of official channels: “ I heard that to induce abortion at the hospital it is necessary for an adult to sign a consent form. I was afraid because I did not know who could accompany me. Because at that time I only wanted to hide it from others. ” (22 years).

3.6. Abortion Procedure

The women were not able to explain why a particular abortion procedure (i.e., pills or aspiration, curettage) was used. It appears that they were not given the opportunity to choose and that they submitted themselves to the procedure proposed by the provider.

“ The abortion was done here at home. They just went to the pharmacy, bought pills and gave them to me. ” (18 years)

3.7. Legal Procedure

None of those treated at the hospital stated that legal procedures were followed. They also mentioned that they had to pay without receiving any official receipt.

“ First we got there and talked to a servant (a helper of the hospital). The servant asked for money for a refreshment so he could talk to a doctor. After we spoke (with servant), he went to the doctor, and the doctor came, and we arranged everything with him. ” (22 years)

“ We went to the health center, and we talked to those doctors or nurses I mean, they said that they could provide that service. It was 1200 mt (17.1 euros), and they were going to deal with everything. They did not give us the chance to sign a document and follow those procedures. ” (20 years)

4. Discussion

The objective of this study was to describe abortion procedures and to explore factors influencing the abortion decision-making process among young women in Maputo and Quelimane.

The study pointed out determinants at the personal, interpersonal and environmental level. Analysing the results, we were confronted with four recurring factors that negatively impacted on the decision-making process: (1) women’s lack of autonomy to make their own decisions regarding the termination of the pregnancy, (2) their general lack of knowledge, (3) the poor availability of local abortion services, and (4) the overpowering influence of providers on the decisions made.

The first factor involves women’s lack of autonomy. In our study, most women indicate that decisions regarding the termination of a pregnancy are mostly taken by others, sometimes against their will. Parents, family members, partners, and providers decide what should happen. As shown in the literature, this lack of autonomy in abortion decision-making is linked to power and gender inequality [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. On the one hand, power reflects the degree to which individuals or groups can impose their will on others, with or without the consent of those others [ 34 , 37 , 38 ]. In this case, the power of the parent/family is observed when they, directly or indirectly, influence their daughters to induce an abortion, for instance by threatening to kick them out of their home. On the other hand, gender inequality is also a factor. This refers to the power imbalance between men and women and is reflected by cases in which the partner makes the decision to terminate the pregnancy [ 38 ]. Besides this, the contextual environment of male chauvinism in Mozambique also makes it more socially acceptable for men to reject responsibility for a pregnancy [ 34 , 35 , 37 , 39 , 40 ]. Finally, women’s economic dependence makes them more vulnerable, dependent and subordinated. For economic reasons, women, have no other choice but to obey and follow the family or partner’s decisions. Closely linked with women’s lack of autonomy is their lack of knowledge. Interviewees report that they do not know where abortion services are provided. They are not acquainted with the legal procedures and do not know their sexual rights. This lack of knowledge among women contributes to the high prevalence of pregnancy termination outside of health facilities and not in accordance with legal procedures.

Our participants often report that abortion services are absent at a local level, as has also been pointed out by Ngwena [ 41 ]. This is a particular problem in Mozambique. Not all tertiary or quaternary health facilities are authorized to perform abortions. The fact that only some tertiary and quaternary facilities are allowed to do so creates a shortage of abortion centres to cover the demand. In fact, only people with a certain level of education and a sufficiently large social network have access to legal and proper abortion procedures.

Finally, our study shows that providers mostly decide on the location, the methods used and the legality of abortion procedures. Patients are highly dependent on the health providers’ commitment, professionality and accuracy and the selected procedures are not mutually decided by the provider and the patient. Providers often do not refer the client to the reference health facility or do not inform them of the legal procedures, creating a gap between law and practice that stimulates illegal and unsafe procedures. The reasons for this are unclear. It might be due to a lack of knowledge among health providers too, and, perhaps, provider saw here an opportunity to supplement the low salary [ 42 ]. Participants who seek help at the health facility they do so contacting the provider in particular, as indication given by someone.

This corroborates with studies conducted by Ngwena [ 41 , 43 ], Doran et al. [ 44 ], Pickles [ 45 ], Mantshi [ 46 ], and Ngwena [ 47 ], which pointed out the obstacles related to the availability of services and providers’ attitudes towards safe abortion, although the law grants the population this right [ 41 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. As Ngwena [ 41 , 43 ] argues, the liberalization of abortion laws is not always put into practice and abortion rights merely exist on paper. Braam’ study [ 48 ] therefore highlights the necessity of clarifying and informing women and providers of the current legislation and ensuring that abortion services are available in all circumstances described in the law.

Finally, despite cultural differences between Maputo and Quelimane, the result did not suggest differences between two areas studied regarding factors influencing the decision to terminate and how the abortion is done. However, the Figure 1 suggests that there was trend to have more participants from Maputo reporting abortion episode in her life than Quelimane. This difference maybe be because Maputo is much more multicultural and the people of this city have more access to information that gives them the opportunity to learn about matter of reproductive health including abortion, than Quelimane. So, due to this there is trend decrease the taboo relation to abortion in Maputo than in Quelimane.

These abortion stories illustrate the lack of autonomy in decision-making process given the power and gender inequalities between adults and young women, and also between man and women . They also show the lack of knowledge not only on the availability of abortion services at some health facilities, as well as, on the new law on abortion. All these lacks that women have are reinforced by poor availability of abortion services and the fact that the providers we not taking their role to help those women, as it is exposed in the next sections.

This study interviewed young women who had an induced abortion at some point in their lives (15 years up to their age at interview date). As such, it does not provide any information on the factors behind the decisions of those who did not terminate their pregnancy.

The results presented in this paper only reflect the perceptions of the young women who had an induced abortion, not those of their parents or partners. The paper is based on qualitative data that provides insights into factors influencing abortion decision-making. Since the sample included in the study is not representative for the population of young women in Mozambique, the results cannot be generalized.

5. Conclusions

Based on the results of the study, we recommend the following measures to improve the abortion decision-making process among young women:

First, strategies should be implemented to increase women's autonomy in decision-making: The study highlighted that gender and power inequalities obstructed young women to make their decision with autonomy. We reiterate the Chandra-Mouli and colleges [ 49 ] message. There is a need to address gender and power inequalities. Addressing gender inequality, and promotion of more equitable power relations leads to improved health outcomes. The interventions to promote gender-equitable and power relationships, as well as human rights, need to be central to all future programming and policies [ 49 ].

Second, patients and the whole population should be better informed about national abortion laws, the recommended and legal procedures and the location of abortion services, since, despite the decision to terminate pregnancy resulted to the imposition, if they were well informed on that, maybe they could be decide on safe and legal abortion, avoiding double autonomy deprivation. At the same time, providers must be informed about the status of national abortion laws. Additionally, they should be trained in communication skills to promote shared decision-making and patient orientation in abortion counseling.

Third, the number of health facilities providing abortions services should be increased, particularly in remote areas.

Finally, health providers should be trained in communication skills to promote shared decision-making and patient orientation in abortion counseling.

The abortion decision-making by young women is an important topic because it refers the decision made during the transitional period from childhood to adulthood. The decision may have life-long consequences, compromising the individual health, career, psychological well-being, and social acceptance. This paper, on abortion decision-making, calls attention to some attitudes that lead to the illegality of abortion despite it was done at a health facility.

Acknowledgments

Authors gratefully acknowledge the support, contribution, and comments from all those who collaborated direct or indirectly, especially Olivier Degomme, Eunice Remane Jethá, Emilia Gonçalves, Cátia Taibo, Beatriz Chongo, Hélio Maúngue and Rehana Capruchand.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed significantly to the manuscript. Mónica Frederico collected data and developed the first analysis. The themes were intensively discussed with Kristien Michielsen, Carlos Arnaldo and Peter Decat. The subsequent versions of the article were written with the active participation of all authors.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

The Washington Post’s essential guide to health policy news

I was there when bird flu first appeared. It’s different today.

with research by McKenzie Beard

A programming note: Beginning this week, The Health 202 is getting a refreshed look and feel. We’re now the Health Brief, but you’ll still get the same reporting and analysis you’ve come to expect.

Good morning. I’m Elisabeth Rosenthal, senior contributing editor for KFF Health News and a former reporter for the New York Times in Beijing. In 1997, I was on a New Year’s holiday in Hong Kong with my mom and two young children when I got a call from the foreign desk: Could I report on a novel virus killing chickens in huge numbers? Send tips to [email protected] .

Today’s edition: A landmark law that significantly expanded health care and disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances hits a new milestone. Two House Republican leaders are seeking a study of the budgetary impacts of making enhanced Obamacare subsidies permanent. But first …

Bird flu: One reporter’s up-close perspective

The H5N1 flu virus and I go way back.

In 1997, I watched as more than a million chickens were slaughtered in Hong Kong to combat the first major global outbreak of the disease. Eighteen people were sickened by the virus and six died , all of whom had close contact with the birds. They were the first deaths in humans.

Though officials in Hong Kong and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were pretty sure H5N1 was unlikely to spread from person to person (and still are), there were mysteries surrounding this flu strain that had suddenly acquired the ability to infect people. Among them: Some workers in Hong Kong’s poultry markets had antibodies to the virus but didn’t fall ill.

It fell off my radar until late 2005, when birds started dying in biblical numbers in remote eastern Turkey, where residents live in proximity to their animals. When bird flu is detected in an area, best practice is to promptly kill all domesticated fowl to prevent spread of the disease. The government was slow to react and farmers in the area only reluctantly culled their birds, often their main source of income. More than a dozen people were sickened and about a third died, including three of Zeki and Marifet Kocyigit ’s four children.

I visited the family in their simple cement home during a frigid January and asked if the children had had contact with the birds. “Of course my children played with our chickens; they are children,” he said.

Shortly thereafter birds started dying of H5N1 in Greece and Nigeria. It was popping up all over Europe and Africa. Scientists determined that the virus was spreading from wild birds landing among domesticated flocks, making it hard to control by culls.

As wild fowl continued to threaten outbreaks in Europe, several countries mandated that chickens be kept indoors if dead wild birds were found in an area. In 2015, a variant of the H5N1 virus came to the United States , sparking outbreaks and culls on Midwest farms — though no human deaths.

Last year it turned up in harbor seals .

“This has been a 20-year process,” said Peter Hotez , an infectious-disease expert at Baylor College of Medicine . “The first red flag was birds dropping from the sky. The second was harbor seals. The third is, now, cattle.”

Cows in at least 51 dairy cattle herds in nine states have tested positive for the flu , though the full extent of the U.S. outbreak is unclear in part due to reluctance by farmers and farmworkers to cooperate with health officials. One human case has been reported — a dairy worker who suffered conjunctivitis.

There are important differences between the Hong Kong outbreak of more than 25 years ago and the current U.S. outbreak. H5N1 today is better understood; health authorities say that in the event of more human cases it should respond to antivirals like Tamiflu, and the CDC says the United States could produce and ship 100 million doses of a vaccine — already developed — within months.

But experts like Hotez still worry. “Surveillance testing has been very fragmented — I don’t think cattle was on anyone’s radar.”

He likens the virus’s appearance in herds to a modest earthquake in San Francisco: “You know something bigger is likely coming, but you don’t know if it’ll be one year or 100.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.

White House prescriptions

1 million Pact Act claims granted

On tap today: President Biden will gather with veterans and their families in New Hampshire to announce that the federal government has granted 1 million claims under the Pact Act since the bipartisan legislation was signed into law in August 2022 .

The milestone means more than 888,000 veterans exposed to toxic substances during their service are receiving new health-care and disability benefits, totaling over $5.7 billion , according to the White House. Texas, Florida and North Carolina lead in the number of claims granted under the landmark law.

The approval rate for claims is around 75 percent . Common conditions include allergic bronchial asthma, hypertension, respiratory issues and certain cancers, according to administration officials.

Agency alert

ARPA-H takes on cybersecurity in health care

The Biden administration is funneling more than $50 million into a new initiative aimed at strengthening the cybersecurity defenses of the nation’s health-care sector.

Unveiled yesterday by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health , the program will provide “multiple awards” to organizations with the best proposals for developing tools to detect and automatically address vulnerabilities in hospital software.

Why it matters: The effort follows February’s cyberattack on a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary that triggered a national health payment crisis . This month, a major attack on Ascension , one of the country’s largest health systems, knocked patient record systems offline and forced medical staff to log care on paper.

In other news from the agencies …

Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy nonprofit, is suing the Food and Drug Administration for allegedly failing to address a six-year-old petition urging the agency to update the product labels of two classes of common antidepressant treatments with a warning about the potential for long-term sexual side effects.
Pharmaceutical giant GSK has been accused of defrauding Medicaid, Medicare and other health programs by allegedly hiding cancer risks associated with its heartburn drug Zantac, according to a whistleblower complaint filed yesterday by an independent Connecticut laboratory.

On the Hill

House GOP chairs seek study of permanent premium tax credits

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason T. Smith (R-Mo.) and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Tex.) are seeking a comprehensive analysis of the budgetary impact of making enhanced Obamacare subsidies permanent.

In a letter sent yesterday to Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel and Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Thomas Barthold , the lawmakers expressed concerns about the costs associated with the beefed-up tax credits and whether they could be contributing to inflated health insurance premiums.

A spokesperson for the CBO confirmed that the agency received the letter and said it would respond to the lawmakers directly.

The bigger picture: Making permanent the premium tax credits that help low- and middle-income Americans purchase health insurance was a top priority in Biden’s fiscal 2025 budget , as they are slated to expire next year without congressional action.

Reproductive wars

Abortion rights amendment moves a step closer to the Nevada ballot

Reproductive rights advocates in Nevada announced yesterday that they submitted nearly double the required number of signatures to place a proposed amendment enshrining abortion access in the state constitution before voters in November.

State officials have until July 8 to verify the signatures for the proposed amendment to be included on the ballot.

A closer look: While abortion is currently legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy in Nevada, advocates aim to safeguard access by proposing a constitutional amendment that protects abortion rights until fetal viability, fearing potential future restrictions.

We’re thrilled to congratulate the @nv4reprofreedom team on their incredible achievement today! Thanks to their dedication, ✨ over 200,000 Nevadans ✨ from all 17 counties have taken a stand for reproductive freedom. https://t.co/Uep3OX1nZb pic.twitter.com/oJy0NJ4LV2 — Planned Parenthood Votes NV (@PPVotesNevada) May 20, 2024

In other health news

On tap today: Members of Congress, industry leaders and other guests will gather to officially launch the bipartisan Women’s Health Political Action Committee , which seeks to elevate related issues on the national stage.
On the move: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has appointed Martin Mendoza as the new director of its Office of Minority Health. Mendoza previously served as director of health equity for the “All of Us” research program at the National Institutes of Health .
People with HIV can breastfeed their babies if they follow certain guidelines with support from their medical care team, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics that reverses recommendations it made in the 1980s.

Health reads

Top U.S. drug agency a notable holdout in Biden’s push to loosen federal marijuana restrictions (By Joshua Goodman and Jim Mustian | The Associated Press)

Members of Congress buy and sell stocks that would gain from bill banning China biotech companies (By Zachary Brennan | Endpoints News)

Abortion Access on the Ballot in 2024 State Supreme Court Races (By Brenna Goth | Bloomberg Law)

Thanks for reading! Not a subscriber? Sign up here.

IMAGES

159 Abortion Research Paper Topics To Impress Your Teacher
⇉Abortion Research Paper Essay Example
How to Write an Abortion Research Paper Correctly
351 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Ideas
⇉Abortion Research Paper Conceptioni Believe That Essay Example
≫ Pro Choice Abortion: Because It's Safer Free Essay Sample on Samploon.com

COMMENTS

50 Abortion Essay Topics for In-Depth Discussion by
Choosing Abortion Research Paper Topics. When selecting research paper topics on abortion, it is essential to consider factors such as research feasibility, availability of credible sources, and the potential for original contributions. Abortion is a complex and multifaceted issue that intersects with various aspects of society and individual ...
241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Titles + Examples
Abortion research paper topics can study the health effects of different pregnancy termination methods, like medications and surgeries. You can write an abortion essay in psychology. For example, research strategies to cope with grief after pregnancy termination and the role of pre and post-abortion counseling.
Abortion Care in the United States
Abortion services are a vital component of reproductive health care. Since the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Dobbs v.Jackson Women's Health Organization, access to abortion services has been increasingly restricted in the United States. Jung and colleagues review current practice and evidence on medication abortion, procedural abortion, and associated reproductive health care, as well as ...
A research on abortion: ethics, legislation and socio-medical outcomes
Abstract. This article presents a research study on abortion from a theoretical and empirical point of view. The theoretical part is based on the method of social documents analysis, and presents a complex perspective on abortion, highlighting items of medical, ethical, moral, religious, social, economic and legal elements.
Reducing the harms of unsafe abortion: a systematic review of the
Introduction. Globally, access to safe abortion is limited. As a result, an estimated 25 million unsafe abortion occur each year, and at least 22 800 women die from resulting complications, almost all in low- and middle-income countries. 1 This is often due to restrictive laws which prohibit abortion; but even in contexts where abortion is legal, other barriers, such as cost, distance and ...
Scholarly Articles on Abortion: History, Legislation & Activism
See More Articles >>. Abortion is a medical or surgical procedure to deliberately end a pregnancy. In 1973 the US Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade ruled that the Constitution protects the right to an abortion prior to the viability of a fetus. Until the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Roe v.
Beyond safety: the 2022 WHO abortion guidelines and the future of
Existing research suggests, however, that these criteria are often not met. 13. The updated WHO abortion care guidelines clearly articulate that 'A person's environment plays a crucial role in shaping their access to care and influencing their health outcomes. An enabling environment is the foundation of quality, comprehensive abortion care'.
Access to safe abortion is a fundamental human right
Abortion is a common medical or surgical intervention used to terminate pregnancy. Although a controversial and widely debated topic, approximately 73 million induced abortions occur worldwide each year, with 29% of all pregnancies and over 60% of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion. Abortions are considered safe if they are carried out using a method recommended by WHO, appropriate to ...
The abortion and mental health controversy: A comprehensive literature
The abortion and mental health controversy is driven by two different perspectives regarding how best to interpret accepted facts. When interpreting the data, abortion and mental health proponents are inclined to emphasize risks associated with abortion, whereas abortion and mental health minimalists emphasize pre-existing risk factors as the primary explanation for the correlations with more ...
What can economic research tell us about the effect of abortion access
Research demonstrates that abortion access does, in fact, profoundly affect women's lives by determining whether, when, and under what circumstances they become mothers. Economists also have ...
Renewed calls for abortion-related research in the post-Roe era
Renewed calls for abortion-related research in the post-Roe era. Nearly 50 years after Roe versus Wade, the United States Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization unraveled the constitutional right to abortion, allowing individual states to severely restrict or ban the procedure. In response, leading medical, public health, and community organizations ...
Key facts about abortion views in the U.S.
Women (66%) are more likely than men (57%) to say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to the survey conducted after the court's ruling. More than half of U.S. adults - including 60% of women and 51% of men - said in March that women should have a greater say than men in setting abortion policy.
159 Abortion Research Paper Topics To Impress Your Teacher
Abortion Topics for Research Paper. Abortion is a topic that has different opinions and conversations. These are some topics you can explore when writing about abortion. Explore the possible side effects of abortion. Medical reasons for abortions. Different religions and their stands on abortion. History of abortion.
Topic Guide
An abortion is a medical or surgical procedure that deliberately ends a pregnancy before an embryo or fetus is born. Opponents of abortion typically object to the practice for religious or ethical reasons, contending that the procedure constitutes the cruel termination of what they consider to be a viable human life.Those who support a woman's right to choose an abortion argue that access to ...
Views on whether abortion should be legal, and in ...
Overall, 25% of adults initially said abortion should be legal in all cases, but about a quarter of this group (6% of all U.S. adults) went on to say that there should be some exceptions when abortion should be against the law. One-in-ten adults initially answered that abortion should be illegal in all cases, but about one-in-five of these ...
Psychological traits and public attitudes towards abortion ...
Research has found that people's views on abortion tends to be stable over time (Jelen and Wilcox, 2003; Pew Research Center, 2022). As a result, it is possible that pre-existing empathy, rather ...
Abortion Research
Background Reading: It's important to begin your research learning something about your subject; in fact, you won't be able to create a focused, manageable thesis unless you already know something about your topic. This step is important so that you will: Begin building your core knowledge about your topic. Be able to put your topic in context.
Abortion bans and their impacts: A view from the United States
In "Association of Texas' 2021 Ban on Abortion in Early Pregnancy with the Number of Facility-Based Abortion in Texas and Surrounding States," White et al. used a large dataset containing information before and after the passage of SB8 in September 2021. 1 This bill banned most abortions after 6 weeks in the state of Texas.
Abortion Research Paper: Example, Outline, & Topics
Abortion Research Paper: Example, Outline, & Topics. (2 votes) The long-standing debate surrounding abortion has many opponents and advocates. Groups known as Pro-Choice and Pro-Life argue which approach is better, with no easy solution in sight. This ethical complexity is what makes abortion a popular topic for argumentative writing.
Abortion
Abortion has risen as an election issue for Latinos, with a majority saying it should be legal in all or most cases. Meanwhile, 80% say the economy is a very important issue when deciding who to vote for in the upcoming congressional midterm elections, a greater share than any other issue. reportSep 1, 2022.
Abortion care guideline
Summary chart of recommendations on medical management of abortion. Pocket guide of recommendations on medical management of abortion. Towards a supportive law and policy environment for quality abortion care: evidence brief (11 pages) Supplementary materials and web annexes. Web annex A. Key international human rights standards on abortion
Tanzanian adolescents' attitudes toward abortion: innovating video
The research presented in this paper fills a gap in the literature: young people's perspectives - especially those of younger girls and of boys - are often excluded from research on abortion and sexual relationships. ... Using the Animating Children's View methodology, the sensitive topic of abortion was discussed with adolescents and ...
Standardizing abortion research outcomes (STAR): Results from an
The Standardizing Abortion Research (STAR) outcomes project aims to define a core outcome set for abortion-related research. Abortion is a common experience worldwide, with an estimated 73 million abortions annually . Robust, well-developed clinical trials and guidelines on abortion provide information that can enhance safety, effectiveness ...
245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
Looking for a good essay, research or speech topic on Abortion? Check our list of 245 interesting Abortion title ideas to write about! Clear. Writing Help Login Writing Tools. ... Abortion essay topics are often linked to the issue of women's rights. According to most feminists, abortion is related to women's bodily autonomy, and thus ...
Most Americans Support Legal Abortion 2 Years ...
The new Pew Research Center survey, conducted April 8-14, 2024, among 8,709 adults, surfaces ongoing - and often partisan - divides over abortion attitudes: Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (85%) overwhelmingly say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with near unanimous support among liberal Democrats.
Florida's 6-week abortion ban and general ignorance of two key facts
Anti-abortion rights groups, such as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, have called the six-week abortion ban the gold standard in abortion policy. Florida Republicans supporting the bill have ...
Law barring Idaho employees from promoting abortion limits teachers
During a political science course on how to write a research paper, her professor said he could not give her feedback on her chosen topic — abortion. The issue didn't come up in her other ...
Factors Influencing Abortion Decision-Making Processes among Young
1. Introduction. Abortion among adolescents and youth is a major public health issue, especially in developing countries. Estimates indicate that 2.2 million unplanned pregnancies and 25% (2.5 million) unsafe abortions occur each year, in sub-Saharan Africa, among adolescents [].In 2008, of the 43.8 million induced abortions, 21.6 million were estimated to be unsafe, and nearly all of them (98 ...
I was there when bird flu first appeared. It's different today
A closer look: While abortion is currently legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy in Nevada, advocates aim to safeguard access by proposing a constitutional amendment that protects abortion rights ...

50 Abortion Essay Topics: Researching Abortion-Related Subjects

Choosing the Right Abortion Essay Topic

List of Abortion Argumentative Essay Topics

Effective Abortion Topics for Research Paper

List of Abortion Research Paper Topics

Choosing Abortion Research Paper Topics

241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples

📚 Subtopics for Abortion Essays

What can economic research tell us about the effect of abortion access on women’s lives?

Introduction

Separating Correlation from Causation: The “Credibility Revolution” in Economics

The Effects of Abortion Access on Women’s Reproductive, Economic, and Social Lives

The ripple effects of abortion access on the lives of women and their families

Access to abortion continues to be important to women’s lives

PERSPECTIVE article

The social, ethical, and legal complexities of abortion-related research

Intersecting structures of oppression and research “vulnerability”

Considerations for ethically responsible abortion research

Community and stakeholder engagement

Risks to participants with social and structural vulnerabilities

Privacy and confidentiality

Communication and dissemination

Data availability statement

Author contributions

Acknowledgments

Conflict of interest

Publisher’s note

159 Abortion Research Paper Topics: Creative Ideas List

What Makes a Good Abortion Thesis Paper?

Before Beginning the Paper

Writing the Paper

Abortion Topics for Research Paper

Essay Topics on Abortions

Abortion Argumentative Topics

Abortion Research Questions

College Research Topics about Abortion

Controversial Abortion Research Paper Topics

Writing Help For Your Saviour

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

About Abortion

Psychological traits and public attitudes towards abortion: the role of empathy, locus of control, and need for cognition

Similar content being viewed by others

Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions

Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers

Mechanisms linking social media use to adolescent mental health vulnerability

Locus of control

Need for cognition

Participants

Materials and procedures

Attitudes toward abortion

Demographics

Traumatic abortion vs. elective abortion

Expanding findings with a quantitative approach

Limitations and future directions

Data availability

Author information

Contributions

Corresponding author

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

Informed consent

Additional information

Rights and permissions

About this article

Share this article

Quick links

Start Learning About Your Topic

Why Use Books:

Where Do I Find Books?

What if MJC Doesn't Have What I Need?

Abortion Research Paper: Example, Outline, & Topics

📋 Abortion Research Paper Example

☑️ Abortion Research Paper Prompts

Should Abortion Be Legal: Research Paper Prompt

Anti-Abortion Research Paper Prompt

Abortion and Embryonic Stem Cell Research Prompt

Abortion Law Research Paper Prompt

Abortion Breast Cancer Research Prompt

Abortion Ethics Research Paper Prompt

👨‍⚕️ Questions about Abortion for Research Paper