There resides a confusion about whether ‘abortion or ‘termination of pregnancy’ should be used by health professionals during interactions with women and published works.
Responses were coded and analyzed using SPSS. The primary outcome measures were the proportion of respondents reporting that they found the terms ‘abortion’ and ‘termination of pregnancy’ to be distressing and women’s preferred terminology for referring to induced abortion.
Two thousand two hundred fifty-nine women completed the survey. 82% of women in the sample were white, 51% had children, and 36% had previously undergone an abortion. Thirty-five percent indicated that they found the word ‘abortion’ distressing compared with 18% who reported that ‘termination of pregnancy’ was unfortunate. Forty-five percent of respondents expressed a preference for ‘termination of pregnancy’ and 12% for ‘abortion’. Sixteen percent would choose either term. This pattern of results did not vary statistically by age, reproductive history, country of residence, ethnicity, or deprivation level.
The study concluded that most women seeking abortion did not find the terms ‘abortion’ or termination of pregnancy’ distressing. When given a choice of words, more women who expressed a preference chose ‘termination of pregnancy’.
Reference: https://srh.bmj.com/content/43/4/265
