Young women's experiences of arranging and having abortions

Women (n = 54) aged between 16 and 24 were interviewed between one and thre e hours after their abortion about their experiences. Overall, having an un wanted pregnancy was experienced as a rare event which was accompanied by f eelings of lack of control and loss of status. Further, the process of arra nging and having an abortion led to a reinstatement of status, control and normality. However, this process was sometimes hindered by inaccessible inf ormation, judgmental health professionals and the wider social context of a bortion in which abortion is seen as a generally negative experience. In th e main though, most of these negative experiences were associated with acce ssing the abortion service and the professionals who act as gatekeepers to the service rather than those who work within the service itself. Therefore , although young women's experiences were wide-ranging and varied, most wer e positive, and at times even negative expectations were compensated by sup portive staff, indicating that abortion services may not be as judgmental i n the late 20th century as suggested in previous decades.