Preventing pregnancy: a girls' issue. Seventeen-year-old Swedish boys' perceptions on abortion, reproduction and use of contraception.

OBJECTIVE

To gain deeper understanding of how teenage males view abortion, adolescent fatherhood, sexual behavior, and use of contraception.

METHOD

We conducted six focus-group interviews with 17-year-old boys (n = 40). The interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using manifest content analysis.

RESULTS

Adolescent fatherhood was considered to be a catastrophe and abortion a moral dilemma. Most participants agreed that the unrestricted right to decide on abortion rests upon the girl, but some were frustrated by not having any legal right to influence the decision. Contraceptive failure was viewed as common and mainly due to the influence of alcohol or in relation to unplanned sex. Boys perceived girls as having a greater responsibility in avoiding pregnancy, and they often put a blind trust in the girls' use of hormonal contraceptives or initiation of emergency contraception. Several groups had insufficient knowledge about fetal development and other aspects of reproduction. Many were unsatisfied with the sex education they had received at school, but still considered it to be an important counterweight to other sources of information concerning sex, such as pornography.

CONCLUSION

Equal responsibility among boys and girls regarding reproductive issues is still a challenge, but nevertheless an important key to the prevention of unwanted pregnancies.