{"id":3009,"date":"2011-08-25T23:52:09","date_gmt":"2011-08-26T04:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=3009"},"modified":"2011-08-25T23:52:09","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T04:52:09","slug":"bedside-manners-medical-care-or-moral-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2011\/08\/25\/bedside-manners-medical-care-or-moral-surveillance\/","title":{"rendered":"BEDSIDE MANNERS: Medical Care or Moral Surveillance?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is the legality of abortion in the U.S. a moot point if too few ob-gyns are willing to perform the medical procedures?\u00a0 A recent post on FREAKONOMICS<\/a><\/em> inspired me to find out more about a new article in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology<\/em> titled \u201cAbortion Provision Among Practicing Obstetrician-Gynecologists<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This group of researchers mailed surveys to practicing ob-gyns and reported on the data from 1,800 who responded. The article\u2019s main findings are as follows: \u201cAmong practicing ob-gyns, 97% encountered patients seeking abortions, whereas 14% performed them.\u201d Their analysis of the data revealed that male physicians were less likely to provide abortions than female physicians. Age was also a factor, with younger physicians being more likely to provide abortions.<\/p>\n

The new article\u2019s abstract states, \u201c\u2026physicians with high religious motivation were less likely to provide abortions.\u201d I wonder if the large numbers of ob-gyns who do not provide abortions speaks to moral judgments that this medical procedure is a sin. So, the legality of abortion may be rendered pointless by physicians who may be making decisions based on religious doctrine? Access to abortion remains limited by the willingness of physicians to provide abortion services, particularly in rural communities and in the South and Midwest.\u201d Does a woman\u2019s geographic location doom her to restrictions on her ability to obtain a medical procedure that is protected by law?<\/p>\n

During my study<\/a> of women and men living with genital herpes and HPV\/genital warts infections, I coined the term moral surveillance practitioner<\/a><\/em> to describe the doctor-patient interaction style of health care providers who conveyed a sense of disapproval, judgment, condemnation, and even disgust to their patients who had sought their sexual health services.\u00a0 In the case of STDs, these practitioners tended to blame their patients for having contracted a medically incurable infection because of their own \u201cbad\u201d and sinful sexual behaviors.<\/p>\n

It would be interesting to see if a companion study to the newly published one, perhaps a qualitative interview study, would reveal a more nuanced understanding of the attitudes and values that ob-gyns hold about their female patients who seek abortion services. \u00a0With women\u2019s physical and\/or mental health often hanging in the balance of the ability to receive a legal abortion, we deserve to know more about the large number of ob-gyns whose moral opinion may be taking precedence over their ethical obligation to, in the words of the Hippocratic Oath<\/a>, \u201cFirst, do no harm\u201d\u2026in this case, to do no harm to their female patients who may be harmed by not<\/strong> having a medically safe, legal abortion.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Note: If you\u2019re curious about physicians\u2019 insights and experiences in providing (or not providing) abortion care, then check out two recent books: Carole Joffe\u2019s Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us<\/a><\/em> and Lori Freedman\u2019s Willing and Unable: Doctors Constraints in Abortion Care<\/a><\/em>. And, for more of the latest research on reproductive health care and policy<\/a>, explore the work of UC San Francisco\u2019s reproductive health think tank ANSIRH<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is the legality of abortion in the U.S. a moot point if too few ob-gyns are willing to perform the medical procedures?\u00a0 A recent post on FREAKONOMICS inspired me to find out more about a new article in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology titled \u201cAbortion Provision Among Practicing Obstetrician-Gynecologists.\u201d This group of researchers mailed surveys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1918,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21094],"tags":[851,39,245,33,3109,3290,2079,431,1066,665,176],"class_list":["post-3009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bedside-manners","tag-body","tag-ethics","tag-feminism","tag-health","tag-motherhood","tag-pregnancy","tag-reproductive-justice","tag-research","tag-rights","tag-science","tag-sexuality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}