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Objectives
To examine the role of healthcare providers in women's experiences attempting self-managed
abortion.
Methods
This study draws from in-depth interviews with women who attempted a self-managed
abortion within the past 10 years. Respondents were recruited using social media advertisements
and were eligible if they were at least 14 years old, spoke English or Spanish, and
lived in the US near the Mexican border. I thematically indexed transcripts and applied
analytic codes to explore the role of healthcare providers in women's experiences.
Results
Between June 2020 and January 2021, 55 women participated in an interview. Most interview
respondents (n=39) had had contact with a pharmacist, clinic staff member, or medical
provider prior to or following their self-managed abortion attempt. They did so through
both formal pathways (eg, clinic-based information or services such as ultrasound)
and informal pathways (eg, information and medications from people in their social
networks and south of the US border). Respondents who contacted a healthcare provider
reported a range of experiences, including positive responses that provided comfort
and validation, neutral responses that normalized self-management, and negative responses
that resulted in emotional stress and led women to conceal their health needs and
experiences.
Conclusions
As abortion becomes further restricted in the US, more people will turn to self-managed
abortion. Providers should be made aware of the consequences of negative reactions
toward people seeking care and understand the critical role they might play (both
formally and informally) in reducing risk, harm, and stigma in this new legal landscape.
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Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc.
