Attitudes of California Registered Nurses About Abortion

The Space in the Middle: Attitudes of Women's Health and Neonatal Nurses in the United States about Abortion

“…First, nearly one-half (48%) of the study sample reported having strongly or moderately proabortion attitudes. This proportion is slightly lower than in the study by Swartz et al (2020), who found that 64% of California nurses held proabortion attitudes, and prior studies that suggest 60% to 80% of advanced practice nurses support people's right to abortion (Coleman-Minahan et al, 2020;Hwang, Koyama, Taylor, Henderson, & Miller, 2005). These studies did not capture ambivalence around abortion attitudes and, in our study, respondents fell into more categories than simply proabortion or antiabortion; notably, almost one-third of the sample held abortion attitudes that were unsure.…”

“…First, participants were asked to complete a 30-question survey developed for a previous study (Swartz et al, 2020) that had been modified slightly for a national audience. This section included questions on personal and professional characteristics.…”

“…Validated questions were taken from the California Board of Registered Nurses Survey Survey of Registered Nurses, 2016 and the National Nursing Workforce Survey (The National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, 2008). Details of this survey have been published elsewhere (Swartz et al, 2020). Domains included basic demographic information such as gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, religious orientation, geographic residence, and reproductive history, as well as professional characteristics about current employment.…”

Pregnancy Options Counseling and Abortion Referral Practices Among Colorado Nurse Practitioners, Nurse‐Midwives, and Physician Assistants

“…Although the survey response rate (21%) is not as high as some clinician surveys using national databases, 8 it is comparable to others. 7,9,34 APCs interested in reproductive health may have been more likely to participate in the survey than those without interest; thus, assessment of counseling and referral practices may be higher than in the target Colorado APC population. Providing nuance, participants' willingness and ability to present, counsel, or refer for abortion counseling was assessed.…”

“…28,29 These trainings have been shown to improve clinician communication skills, empathy, respect of patient autonomy, and intentions to provide abortion counseling and referrals. [35][36][37] Finally, study data do not fully capture the complexity of attitudes and behaviors, including how clinicians may hold conflicting personal and professional beliefs 34,38 or how willingness to provide counseling or care may depend on a patient's reason for desiring abortion. 34,38,39 This complexity, as well as barriers to providing abortion related care, such as abortion stigma or workplace culture, 38,39 must also be considered when identifying ways to change clinician practices and increase access to abortion care.…”