Beliefs about reporting self-managed abortion to government authorities among health professionals registering for a professional education webinar.

OBJECTIVES

We examined health professionals' views on self-managed abortion (SMA) reporting and how these relate to child welfare-reporting views.

STUDY

DESIGN

We collected self-administered survey data from U.S. health professionals registered for a webinar about pregnancy, drug use, and child welfare-reporting. The survey included two Likert-scaled SMA reporting statements: "I think clinicians should be required by law to report patients who attempt to end a pregnancy on their own to legal authorities" and "A clinician who sees a patient who attempted to end a pregnancy on their own has an ethical obligation to keep this information confidential;" and nine child welfare-reporting statements. We used descriptive, chi-square, and regression analyses to describe SMA-reporting beliefs and explore factors associated with them. Findings were similar across both SMA-reporting beliefs; thus we focus results presentation on one belief.

RESULTS

Five-hundred-eighty-three survey participants completed SMA-reporting questions. Six percent agreed, 81% disagreed, and 13% were neutral that clinicians should be required to report. In contrast, 41% agreed, 37% disagreed, and 21% were neutral that they "would rather err on the side of overreporting to child welfare." More social workers (8%) and nurses (6%) than physicians (0%) agreed that clinicians should have an obligation to report SMA. While beliefs regarding SMA- and child welfare-reporting were associated, participants were more supportive of child welfare- than SMA-reporting.

CONCLUSIONS

Most health professionals did not support SMA-reporting, although views varied by profession. Views on SMA-reporting were related to, yet distinct from, views on child welfare-reporting.

IMPLICATIONS: Health professionals' beliefs regarding reporting pregnant and birthing patients to government authorities are not consistent across topics nor across professional roles. Professional training efforts should account for these differences.