Family physicians and first-trimester abortion: a survey of residency programs in southern California

Since abortion has become a focus of increased public attention, it is important to assess family physicians' attitudes and scope of training regarding this outpatient procedure.

Residents and faculty at eight southern California family practice residency programs were surveyed about their views on first-trimester abortion, and about their interest in training to perform the procedure.

While 62.5% of respondents believed abortion to be an appropriate procedure for family physicians to perform, only 19.5% had performed an abortion during the past year. Attitudes about situations in which abortion should be available to women were not associated with age, gender, or ethnicity. Religion of the respondents, however, was significantly associated with attitudes toward abortion. Of respondents without personal objections to the procedure, those who perceived the performance of abortion as appropriate for family physicians were significantly more likely to be interested in further training (48.2%) than those who did not perceive it as appropriate (18.2%, P = .0147). This perception of appropriateness was affected by whether or not a respondent had been offered training; those who had been offered training in abortion were 8.5 times more likely to believe it to be an appropriate procedure for family physicians to perform (P = .0001).

If the number of family physicians providing abortions is to be increased, residency programs must offer abortion training as a more fully recognized part of the family medicine curriculum.