Biomaterial Database

Swedish students' attitudes toward abortion. 1993

M E Lindell, and H M Olsson

The Swedish abortion legislation of 1975 gave women the right to make a decision about abortion before the end of the 18th week of pregnancy. The number of abortions is rising in Sweden as a chosen method of birth control. The attitudes of students toward abortion were studied in 1986-1987. A questionnaire containing items on how sex education is taught, the anatomy and physiology of reproduction, contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases, and legal abortion was answered by 421 high school students. Results pertaining to the students' attitudes toward abortion are reported. Two thirds of the students believed that the decision about an abortion should be made by the man and woman together. Nearly all respondents believed that abortion should not be considered a method of birth control. These results may be considered a guide for interventions to prevent the need for abortion. One fourth of all pregnancies in Sweden terminate in abortion. The students in the present study thought of abortion as a solution. Authors studying samples with different cultural backgrounds have reported similar attitudes.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D011247	Pregnancy	The status during which female mammals carry their developing young (EMBRYOS or FETUSES) in utero before birth, beginning from FERTILIZATION to BIRTH.	Gestation,Pregnancies
D011795	Surveys and Questionnaires	Collections of data obtained from voluntary subjects. The information usually takes the form of answers to questions, or suggestions.	Community Survey,Nonrespondent,Questionnaire,Questionnaires,Respondent,Survey,Survey Method,Survey Methods,Surveys,Baseline Survey,Community Surveys,Methodology, Survey,Nonrespondents,Questionnaire Design,Randomized Response Technique,Repeated Rounds of Survey,Respondents,Survey Methodology,Baseline Surveys,Design, Questionnaire,Designs, Questionnaire,Methods, Survey,Questionnaire Designs,Questionnaires and Surveys,Randomized Response Techniques,Response Technique, Randomized,Response Techniques, Randomized,Survey, Baseline,Survey, Community,Surveys, Baseline,Surveys, Community,Techniques, Randomized Response
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000029	Abortion, Legal	Termination of pregnancy under conditions allowed under local laws. (POPLINE Thesaurus, 1991)	Abortion on Demand,Abortions, Legal,Legal Abortion,Legal Abortions
D000293	Adolescent	A person 13 to 18 years of age.	Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D001294	Attitude to Health	Public attitudes toward health, disease, and the medical care system.	Health Attitude,Attitude, Health,Attitudes, Health,Health Attitudes,Health, Attitude to
D013334	Students	Individuals enrolled in a school or formal educational program.	School Enrollment,Enrollment, School,Enrollments, School,School Enrollments,Student
D013548	Sweden	Country in northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, between Finland and Norway. The capital is Stockholm.