ORCID iD
Kathleen Broussard https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6312-7207
Document Type
Article
Abstract
State-level restrictions on abortion access may prompt greater numbers of people to self-manage their abortion. The few studies exploring perspectives of providers towards self-managed abortion are focused on physicians and advanced practice clinicians. Little is known about the wider spectrum of abortion care providers who encounter self-managed abortion in their clinic-based work. To gain a deeper understanding of this issue and inform future care delivery, we conducted in-depth interviews with 46 individuals working in a range of positions in 46 abortion clinics across 29 states. Our interpretative analysis resulted in themes shaped by beliefs about safety and autonomy, and a tension between the two: that self-managed abortion is too great a risk, that people are capable of self-managing an abortion, and that people have a right to a self-managed abortion. Our findings highlight the importance of increasing knowledge and clarifying values among all abortion care providers, including clinic staff.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Publication Info
Published in Qualitative Health Research, Volume 32, Issue 5, 2022, pages 788-799.
Rights
© The Author(s) 2022.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Request permissions for this article.
APA Citation
Baldwin, A., Johnson, D. M., Broussard, K., Tello-Pérez, L. A., Madera, M., Ze-Noah, C., Padron, E., & Aiken, A. R. A. (2022). U.S. abortion care providers’ perspectives on self-managed abortion. Qualitative Health Research, 32(5), 788–799. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323221077296.