The ambivalence of abortion: An explorative study on attitudes towards elective abortion and abortion limits among pregnant women in Denmark

IF 2.6 3区医学 Q1 NURSING

Midwifery Pub Date : 2025-03-15 DOI:10.1016/j.midw.2025.104381

Mia Jess , Sif Emilie Carlsen , Maria Gantzel , Ellen C.L. Løkkegaard , Tom Møller , Jane M. Bendix , Helle Timm

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Abstract

Objective

Since the legalization of elective abortion in Denmark in 1973, the abortion limit has been at gestational week 12. The abortion limit has recently been debated, leading to its extension to gestational week 18 by 2025. However, research on abortion limits is lacking in Danish and international contexts. This initial study aimed to examine Danish non-abortion-seeking pregnant women's attitudes towards elective abortion and abortion limits in Denmark, in relation to their own pregnancy and perceptions of the fetus.

Methods

This exploratory study was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 13 non-abortion-seeking pregnant women. All the interviews were conducted using video links. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results

All participants supported abortion as a women's right. However, the responses showed a lack of knowledge about abortion procedures as well as cultural silence linked to abortion. Abortion was viewed as the responsibility and burden of women. The participants were equivocal about the placement of the abortion limit due to their own pregnancy experiences, but gestational week 12 was seen as an important milestone in securing the pregnancy and the expected child.

Conclusion

This study highlights that issues of elective abortion and abortion limits are linked to ambivalence Abortion was voiced as a woman's right, but also as a woman's responsibility, and burden. The fact that an embryo or fetus, is removed during an abortion procedure made it difficult and ambivalent for the participating women to articulate specific attitudes towards raised abortion limits.

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来源期刊

Midwifery 医学-护理

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

7.40%

发文量

221

审稿时长

13.4 weeks

期刊介绍： Midwifery publishes the latest peer reviewed international research to inform the safety, quality, outcomes and experiences of pregnancy, birth and maternity care for childbearing women, their babies and families. The journal’s publications support midwives and maternity care providers to explore and develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes informed by best available evidence. Midwifery provides an international, interdisciplinary forum for the publication, dissemination and discussion of advances in evidence, controversies and current research, and promotes continuing education through publication of systematic and other scholarly reviews and updates. Midwifery articles cover the cultural, clinical, psycho-social, sociological, epidemiological, education, managerial, workforce, organizational and technological areas of practice in preconception, maternal and infant care. The journal welcomes the highest quality scholarly research that employs rigorous methodology. Midwifery is a leading international journal in midwifery and maternal health with a current impact factor of 1.861 (© Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports 2016) and employs a double-blind peer review process.