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Pilot Study of Single Women Requesting a Legal Abortion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

J. F. Pearson
J. F. Pearson
Affiliation:
Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics
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Extract

Eleven unmarried women, pregnat for the first time and requesting a legal abortion through the referral service at the Marie Stopes Clinic in London, volunteered for the study. Each woman was given a focused open-ended interview by the investigator after her consultation session with the clinic doctor. The subjects were middle working-class, including one schoolgirl and four students. All but one were within the age range 18–23. Four women were Roman Catholic and the remainder were Church of England denomination. The minimum length of the period between first meeting the putative father and becoming pregnant was 4 months. Three women were living in situations that enabled the couple to spend the night together whenever they wished. One case of rape was included in the sample. Eight subjects had used some form of contraception at least twice. Only one woman used a female clinical method of contraception. Three of the four cases in which contraception was used on the occasion of conception involved the male using withdrawal. Two of the subjects continued the pregnancy and married.

Topics discussed in individual case histories and across all subjects were: attitudes to marriage, pregnancy and children before meeting the putative father; sources and extent of knowledge about conception and contraceptive; attitudes towards pregnancy and contraception; extent of contraceptive practice; reasons for not using contraception; relationship with the putative father in terms of the role of sexual intercourse, and discussion of marriage, the possibility of pregnancy and of preventing it; sexual behaviour of the couple; attitudes to sexual intercourse; role of responsibility for contraception; the woman's reactions to being pregnat and the reasons for whether or not she informed her parents about the pregnancy.

The observations from the study indicated that knowledge and motivation were individual factors that could not account exclusively for the circumstances contributing to the woman becoming pregnant. Factors in addition to those within the control of the couple were observed and these influences appeared to be the result of conventional socio-cultural conditions and conditioning. The absence of a sanctioning social atmosphere and the presence of stigmas discouraged effective contraceptive practice; these also appeared to be factors in the decision between abortion and continuing the pregnancy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , October 1971 , pp. 417 - 448
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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