Is counselling necessary? Making the decision to have an abortion. A qualitative interview study

Abstract

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Do women seeking termination of pregnancy need pre-abortion counselling?

“…This is not surprising since research has previously shown that most women make a decision on the outcome of an unintended pregnancy at the time of taking a pregnancy test 9 16. Separate Swedish and American studies found that three-quarters of women have decided on a provisional course of action even before taking a pregnancy test 17 18.…”

“…opposed to abortion) charities. Although it is understood that only a minority of women in the UK who are considering an abortion actually use counselling services, there has been little research to quantify the exact proportion of women who do so 9 16…”

Contradictions in womxn’s experiences of pre‐abortion counselling in South Africa: Implications for client‐centred practice

“…Indeed, our own research suggests that counselling may not be voluntary, at least at the facilities where our research was conducted. Given that abortion seekers have varying needs and in order to uphold reproductive autonomy, mandatory counselling is certainly undesirable (Brown, ). Echoing Moore et al's () argument for a 'cafeteria‐style approach' and Birdsey et al's () call for client‐centred counselling, a model of abortion counselling should be developed that is responsive to the narratives clients tell of their lives.…”

Untroubling abortion: A discourse analysis of women’s accounts

“…A consistent finding is that women reach decisions about their pregnancies based on the specific relational contexts of their own lives (Hoggart, 2012; Lattimer, 1998; Lee, 2004; Lee, Clements, Inghan, & Stone, 2004; Purcell, Cameron, et al., 2014). In contrast with the law’s medicalised construction of abortion decision-making, this typically takes place before women approach healthcare professionals for help with accessing the procedure (Allen, 1985; Brown, 2013; Kumar, Baraitser, Morton, & Massil, 2004; Lee, 2004). While women do not generally want input into their decision-making, their interactions with healthcare services are nonetheless central in their experiences of their decisions as either socially legitimate or as problematic (Allen, 1985; Astbury-Ward et al., 2012; Harden & Ogden, 1999; Kumar et al., 2004; Lee, 2004; Purcell, Cameron, et al., 2014).…”