Medical students’ attitudes towards abortion: a UK study

Abstract

The percentage of pro-choice students was lower than that found in research on general practitioners' attitudes to abortion. It is unclear whether this is because students become more pro-choice as they progress through their medical career or because there is genuinely a change in attitudes to abortion.

Attitudes towards abortion in graduate and non-graduate entrants to medical school in Ireland

“…This number is congruent with the results of the previous study of Irish medical students, where 58% of students reported that they would perform or would consider performing a legal abortion in their future careers 10. Similar studies carried out in the USA and Britain found that approximately 50% of students would be willing to perform an abortion 8 14 16…”

“…Notably, student attitudes did not change significantly as they progressed through medical school. UK-based studies have reported that up to two-thirds of medical students described themselves as ‘pro-choice’ 8. Cultural and religious influences were observed in a multicentre international survey involving medical students in Oslo, Norway and Belfast, North Ireland 9.…”

Objeção de Consciência e Aborto Legal: Atitudes de Estudantes de Medicina

“…Outras pesquisas, realizadas em países com legislação mais liberal do que a brasileira, demonstraram que a intenção dos estudantes em participar do aborto é influenciada pelas circunstâncias da gravidez. No Reino Unido, um levantamento em 2008 mostrou que 67% dos estudantes fariam o aborto em caso de risco de morte da mulher, 59% fariam em caso de gravidez por estupro e apenas 37% o fariam em caso de gravidez indesejada 13 . Dados diferentes foram obtidos entre estudantes da Espanha, entre os quais 86% disseram que teriam disponibilidade para participar do aborto por estupro 14 .…”

“…As categorias de respostas para as seções B e C foram "sim" ou "não". O questionário foi desenhado levando em consideração estudos prévios sobre atitudes e opiniões sobre o aborto entre médicos e estudantes de Medicina 8,11,13 .…”

Bad Medicine: Bad data

“…Consider termination of pregnancy: this remains a divisive and stigmatising issue for doctors 2 and society 3 but is frequently included on the medical summary list. What might a chance disclosure on a computer summary have on family relationships?…”