Abstract
Background
All women, including adolescent girls, have the right to equitable access to comprehensive abortion services and to being treated with dignity and respect. Despite an overall downward trend in incidence, abortion is still a common outcome of adolescent pregnancy in high-income countries. While adolescents face similar barriers to older women when accessing an abortion service, they experience additional legal barriers, concerns about confidentiality, longer delays, and greater cost and distance to services. Limited research has examined the experiences of abortion services from the adolescents' perspective which includes navigation of access and provision of adolescent-friendly abortion services
Objective
We sought to explore how adolescents (16-19 years) navigate this complex landscape in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) and explore the experiences and care trajectories of adolescents who had sought a first-trimester induced abortion
Methods
In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with adolescents and young adult females aged 16-24 years who had accessed an abortion service in NSW between the ages of 16 and 19 within the previous five years. Grounded theory and constant comparison method were used to analyse the transcripts.
Results
Four adolescent women aged between 18-24 who had accessed an abortion when they were aged 16-19 participated. The overarching meta-theme was ‘The abortion trajectory is a profound personal crisis for adolescents’. Four themes were: (1) Trajectory of a personal crisis; (2) Building agency and taking control; (3) Isolation and (4) “Just getting people through”.
Conclusions
Adolescents’ needs are unique and have long been overlooked. Despite reported improvements in health literacy flexible, adaptive and empathetic adolescent-friendly services are required. Acknowledging and addressing adolescents’ needs through tailored information and support can enhance adolescent access to and satisfaction of abortion care in NSW.
All women, including adolescent girls, have the right to equitable access to comprehensive abortion services and to being treated with dignity and respect. Despite an overall downward trend in incidence, abortion is still a common outcome of adolescent pregnancy in high-income countries. While adolescents face similar barriers to older women when accessing an abortion service, they experience additional legal barriers, concerns about confidentiality, longer delays, and greater cost and distance to services. Limited research has examined the experiences of abortion services from the adolescents' perspective which includes navigation of access and provision of adolescent-friendly abortion services
Objective
We sought to explore how adolescents (16-19 years) navigate this complex landscape in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) and explore the experiences and care trajectories of adolescents who had sought a first-trimester induced abortion
Methods
In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with adolescents and young adult females aged 16-24 years who had accessed an abortion service in NSW between the ages of 16 and 19 within the previous five years. Grounded theory and constant comparison method were used to analyse the transcripts.
Results
Four adolescent women aged between 18-24 who had accessed an abortion when they were aged 16-19 participated. The overarching meta-theme was ‘The abortion trajectory is a profound personal crisis for adolescents’. Four themes were: (1) Trajectory of a personal crisis; (2) Building agency and taking control; (3) Isolation and (4) “Just getting people through”.
Conclusions
Adolescents’ needs are unique and have long been overlooked. Despite reported improvements in health literacy flexible, adaptive and empathetic adolescent-friendly services are required. Acknowledging and addressing adolescents’ needs through tailored information and support can enhance adolescent access to and satisfaction of abortion care in NSW.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages | P78 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2024 |
| Event | FIAPAC Conference 2024: Building the Case for Reproductive Choice - Brussels, Belgium Duration: 20 Sept 2024 → 21 Sept 2024 Conference number: 15th https://www.fiapac.org/en/program/24/Brussels2024/ https://www.fiapac.org/media/uploads/abstract_book_final.pdf (FIAPAC Abstract Book 2024) |
Conference
| Conference | FIAPAC Conference 2024 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Belgium |
| City | Brussels |
| Period | 20/09/24 → 21/09/24 |
| Other | 15th Conference of the International Federation of Abortion and Contraception Professionals 20 - 21 September 2024 Brussels, Belgium |
| Internet address |
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