Baker Julieta, Lozano Nicole, Shrestha Aneeka, Kayser Ssanyu, Adair Lora
Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK.
Department of Psychology, Angelo State University, San Angelo, Texas, USA.
Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2025 Jun;57(2):198-210. doi: 10.1111/psrh.70019. Epub 2025 Jun 18.
When positioned as part of a cluster of related social and political attitudes, abortion attitudes are characterized as somewhat fixed from a young age. The extent to which abortion attitudes are malleable, and can be shaped by experience, is under-researched in the United Kingdom (UK).
To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured interviews with individuals with (N = 12) and without (N = 16) abortion experience living in the United Kingdom, consisting of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Inductive thematic analysis was used to address the research question: How does experience and/or contact with abortion shape attitudes towards abortion?
The theme From Abstract Idea to Reality illustrates participants' understanding of how abortion attitudes are developed by contact with real, lived experiences of abortion-someone's own and/or their friends' or acquaintances' abortions. Participants were clear that proximity to abortion helped them, and others, to see abortion as tangible, personal, and sensory ("reality") as opposed to intangible, imagined, and conceptual ("abstract"). Subthemes capture our participants' understanding of abortion as a reality as opposed to something imagined; abortion is a complex issue and abortion experiences are varied (Complexity of Abortion), attitudes towards abortion are largely stable (Consistency of Attitudes), and abortion, and the people who seek abortion in the United Kingdom, is still stigmatized (Persistent Stigma).
Our themes and discussion provide direction for future scholarship considering contact as a stigma reduction strategy, highlighting some potential benefits but also urging caution in oversimplifying a complicated social issue.
当堕胎态度被定位为一系列相关社会和政治态度的一部分时，其特点是从年轻时就有点固定。在英国，堕胎态度的可塑性以及能在多大程度上受到经历影响这方面的研究较少。
为填补这一空白，我们对居住在英国（包括英格兰、苏格兰、威尔士或北爱尔兰）有堕胎经历（N = 12）和无堕胎经历（N = 16）的个体进行了半结构化访谈。采用归纳主题分析法来解决研究问题：与堕胎的经历和/或接触如何塑造对堕胎的态度？
“从抽象概念到现实”这一主题阐述了参与者对于堕胎态度如何通过与真实的堕胎生活经历（某人自己的和/或其朋友或熟人的堕胎经历）接触而形成的理解。参与者明确表示，与堕胎的亲近感帮助他们以及其他人将堕胎视为切实、个人且有感官体验的（“现实”），而非无形、想象和概念化的（“抽象”）。子主题体现了我们的参与者对堕胎是现实而非想象事物的理解；堕胎是一个复杂问题且堕胎经历各不相同（堕胎的复杂性），对堕胎的态度基本稳定（态度的一致性），并且在英国，堕胎以及寻求堕胎的人仍然受到污名化（持续的污名）。
我们的主题和讨论为未来将接触作为减少污名化策略的学术研究提供了方向，既突出了一些潜在益处，也敦促在过于简化一个复杂的社会问题时要谨慎。
