Exploring patient motivations for wanting to stop an abortion

Recent campaigns by anti-abortion activists in the United States have centered on the claim that medication abortion with mifepristone, a highly effective regimen for early pregnancy termination, can be “reversed”. Despite the fact that this is not supported by medical evidence, multiple states have incorporated this information into state mandated counselling materials for abortion patients. While the trend of abortion reversal is alarming for a number of reasons, to date no research has specifically examined the experiences of patients who begin – and then want to stop – a medication abortion. The anti-abortion movement argues that this is a common experience. This study will use qualitative, in-depth interviews to explore patient motivations for wanting to stop an abortion. We anticipate that the findings from this study this will have implications for abortion counselling and patient care. As well, we hope that the findings from this project can be used to inform policy discussions surrounding so-called abortion reversal.

Faculty Supervisor:

Angel Foster

Student:

Partner:

Emory University

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Public Service, Policy, and Governance; Information and Communications Technology

University:

University of Ottawa

Program: