Abstract
This study examined the attitudes of nurses who provide care to women undergoing induced abortion. The average age of the nurses surveyed was 32.7. Data was obtained by asking for demographic and other basic information (age, job description, years of experience, whether subject owned a manual on abortion care, etc.), then interviewing the subjects by a semi-structured method. The interviews covered the subjects' impressions of cases that presented difficult care-giving problems, specifics on care given in all cases, why the subjects thought problems arose, their reasons for the types of care they give and their thoughts about giving care to women undergoing abortions. The results were analyzed by grouping together similar responses. In this way, ten of the subjects were classified into two categories of consciousness, according to differences in their views of, or attitudes toward the women in their care. One group of nurses was characterized by belief in a need to show their acceptance of women undergoing abortion, the other by avoidance of personal involvement with the women. In providing routine nursing care, the subjects either actively encouraged the women to express their feelings or did not, as long as the women themselves said nothing. The following factors are theorized as influences on these nurses' attitudes : (1) Their personal reactions to abortion cases they have experienced, (2) Attitudes by the women receiving care that can arouse ambivalence on the part of the nurses and (3) Conflict in the nurses' minds over professional ethics and abortion as a bioethical issue.
