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Navigating abortion law dilemmas: experiences and attitudes among Ethiopian health care professionals
BACKGROUND: Ethiopia’s 2005 abortion law improved access to legal abortion. In this study we examine the experiences of abortion providers with the revised abortion law, including how they view and resolve perceived moral challenges. METHODS: Thirty healthcare professionals involved in abortion prov...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8684257/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34922507 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00735-y |
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author | Ewnetu, Demelash Bezabih Thorsen, Viva Combs Solbakk, Jan Helge Magelssen, Morten |
author_facet | Ewnetu, Demelash Bezabih Thorsen, Viva Combs Solbakk, Jan Helge Magelssen, Morten |
author_sort | Ewnetu, Demelash Bezabih |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Ethiopia’s 2005 abortion law improved access to legal abortion. In this study we examine the experiences of abortion providers with the revised abortion law, including how they view and resolve perceived moral challenges. METHODS: Thirty healthcare professionals involved in abortion provisions in Addis Ababa were interviewed. Transcripts were analyzed using systematic text condensation, a qualitative analysis framework. RESULTS: Most participants considered the 2005 abortion law a clear improvement—yet it does not solve all problems and has led to new dilemmas. As a main finding, the law appears to have opened a large space for professionals’ individual interpretation and discretion concerning whether criteria for abortion are met or not. Regarding abortion for fetal abnormalities, participants support the woman’s authority in deciding whether to choose abortion or not, although several saw these decisions as moral dilemmas. All thought that abortion was a justified choice when a diagnosis of fetal abnormality had been made. CONCLUSION: Ethiopian practitioners experience moral dilemmas in connection with abortion. The law places significant authority, burden and responsibility on each practitioner. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8684257 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86842572021-12-20 Navigating abortion law dilemmas: experiences and attitudes among Ethiopian health care professionals Ewnetu, Demelash Bezabih Thorsen, Viva Combs Solbakk, Jan Helge Magelssen, Morten BMC Med Ethics Research BACKGROUND: Ethiopia’s 2005 abortion law improved access to legal abortion. In this study we examine the experiences of abortion providers with the revised abortion law, including how they view and resolve perceived moral challenges. METHODS: Thirty healthcare professionals involved in abortion provisions in Addis Ababa were interviewed. Transcripts were analyzed using systematic text condensation, a qualitative analysis framework. RESULTS: Most participants considered the 2005 abortion law a clear improvement—yet it does not solve all problems and has led to new dilemmas. As a main finding, the law appears to have opened a large space for professionals’ individual interpretation and discretion concerning whether criteria for abortion are met or not. Regarding abortion for fetal abnormalities, participants support the woman’s authority in deciding whether to choose abortion or not, although several saw these decisions as moral dilemmas. All thought that abortion was a justified choice when a diagnosis of fetal abnormality had been made. CONCLUSION: Ethiopian practitioners experience moral dilemmas in connection with abortion. The law places significant authority, burden and responsibility on each practitioner. BioMed Central 2021-12-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8684257/ /pubmed/34922507 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00735-y Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Ewnetu, Demelash Bezabih Thorsen, Viva Combs Solbakk, Jan Helge Magelssen, Morten Navigating abortion law dilemmas: experiences and attitudes among Ethiopian health care professionals |
title | Navigating abortion law dilemmas: experiences and attitudes among Ethiopian health care professionals |
title_full | Navigating abortion law dilemmas: experiences and attitudes among Ethiopian health care professionals |
title_fullStr | Navigating abortion law dilemmas: experiences and attitudes among Ethiopian health care professionals |
title_full_unstemmed | Navigating abortion law dilemmas: experiences and attitudes among Ethiopian health care professionals |
title_short | Navigating abortion law dilemmas: experiences and attitudes among Ethiopian health care professionals |
title_sort | navigating abortion law dilemmas: experiences and attitudes among ethiopian health care professionals |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8684257/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34922507 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00735-y |
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