{"title":"\"It Makes It More Real to You\": Abortion Attitudes Following Experience and Contact With Abortion.","authors":"Julieta Baker, Nicole Lozano, Aneeka Shrestha, Ssanyu Kayser, Lora Adair","doi":"10.1111/psrh.70019","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>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).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>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?</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>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).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":47632,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health","volume":" ","pages":"198-210"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12204123/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/psrh.70019","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/6/18 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DEMOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
Introduction: 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).
Methods: 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?
Results: 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).
Conclusion: 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.
期刊介绍：
Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health provides the latest peer-reviewed, policy-relevant research and analysis on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and other developed countries. For more than four decades, Perspectives has offered unique insights into how reproductive health issues relate to one another; how they are affected by policies and programs; and their implications for individuals and societies. Published four times a year, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health includes original research, special reports and commentaries on the latest developments in the field of sexual and reproductive health, as well as staff-written summaries of recent findings in the field.
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