Kim Taehyun, Steinberg Julia R
Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD, USA.
Department of Family Science, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2023 Mar;320:115722. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115722. Epub 2023 Jan 25.
Policymakers need to know the abortion attitudes of those they represent. In addition, inaccurate knowledge of or negative attitudes toward abortion may lead to more abortion stigma, which may adversely affect abortion access and women's health.
The first objective was to examine whether individual's abortion knowledge and attitudes changed during 2016-2020 in Delaware and Maryland. The second was to explore whether personally knowing someone who had an abortion in 2020 was associated with knowledge, attitudes, and changes in them from 2016 to 2020.
Data were from the Delaware [Maryland] Survey of Women, a probability sample that was self-administered via web and mail (N = 1106). Women aged 18-44 from Delaware and Maryland were followed from 2016/2017 to 2019/2020. Outcomes were each two facets of abortion knowledge (perceived safety and perceived access) and abortion attitudes (acceptability and advocacy self-identification), and changes in these outcomes. The main predictor was whether women personally knew someone who had an abortion. Covariates included state, religiosity, pregnancy history, and sociodemographic factors. We used logistic models with inverse probability weights.
The percentage of respondents who changed between the first and third waves varied: 46% changed their views on safety and accessibility; 21% changed their views on acceptability; and 25% changed their advocacy self-identification. Knowing someone personally who had an abortion was associated with changing toward viewing abortion as very safe and towards pro-choice, and with not changing towards viewing abortion as wrong or identifying as pro-life.
These findings suggest abortion knowledge and attitudes are not fixed but change over time, and knowing someone who had an abortion or having an abortion oneself was associated with changing toward positive attitudes and accurate knowledge. Sharing one's abortion experience with others one knows may reduce negative attitudes and inaccurate knowledge regarding abortion.
政策制定者需要了解他们所代表人群对堕胎的态度。此外，对堕胎的不准确认知或负面态度可能会导致更多的堕胎污名化，这可能会对堕胎服务的可及性和女性健康产生不利影响。
第一个目标是研究2016年至2020年期间特拉华州和马里兰州居民的堕胎知识和态度是否发生了变化。第二个目标是探讨在2020年个人认识有过堕胎经历的人是否与知识、态度以及2016年至2020年期间这些方面的变化有关。
数据来自特拉华州[马里兰州]女性调查，这是一个通过网络和邮件自行填写的概率样本（N = 1106）。来自特拉华州和马里兰州的18至44岁女性在2016/2017年至2019/2020年期间接受跟踪调查。结果变量是堕胎知识的两个方面（感知安全性和感知可及性）和堕胎态度（可接受性和支持堕胎自我认同），以及这些结果变量的变化。主要预测因素是女性是否个人认识有过堕胎经历的人。协变量包括州、宗教信仰、怀孕史和社会人口学因素。我们使用了带有逆概率权重的逻辑模型。
在第一波和第三波调查之间发生变化的受访者比例各不相同：46%的人改变了对安全性和可及性的看法；21%的人改变了对可接受性的看法；25% 的人改变了支持堕胎自我认同。个人认识有过堕胎经历的人与将堕胎视为非常安全以及支持堕胎选择的态度转变有关，并且与不将堕胎视为错误或不认同支持生命立场的态度转变有关。
这些发现表明，堕胎知识和态度并非固定不变，而是会随时间变化，认识有过堕胎经历的人或自己有过堕胎经历与态度转变为积极态度和准确知识有关。与自己认识的人分享堕胎经历可能会减少对堕胎的负面态度和不准确认知。
