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Abortion: attitudes and perceptions of health professionals in Zimbabwe
J Kasule1, M T Mbizvo, V Gupta
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Zimbabwe Medical School, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Objective:
To determine the attitudes of professional health workers (doctors, nurses, matrons, social workers and hospital administrators) to medically supervised abortion.
Design:
Cross sectional study.
Setting:
Randomly selected health institutions--urban as well as rural in the eight provinces of Zimbabwe.
Subjects:
Males and females--age range 18 to 70 years.
Main Outcome Measures:
Perception of the problem of abortion by health professionals, their knowledge of the present abortion law and desire for change.
Results:
The majority of doctors were supportive of medically supervised abortion (61.2%) while the nurses were divided 43.2% for and 42.0% against but 14.8% were undecided. The administrators and social workers were supportive. Of the doctors 75% felt that the present abortion law was restrictive and 55.6% supported change. All health professionals agreed that the majority of women who present for abortion treatment are single. The surprising finding was that it is knowledge of the dire complications of unsafe abortion that determines one's attitude to abortion rather than religion.
Conclusion:
By increasing single women's and adolescents' access to family planning services the incidence of unintended pregnancies which result in unsafe abortion with life threatening complications will be reduced. The present restrictive abortion laws which foster backstreet unsafe abortion need to be revised.