Here & Now

The Perspectives Doctors Hold Toward Abortion

Frederica Freyberg:

One researcher wanted to know how Wisconsin doctors felt about abortion. Two surveys of physicians conducted by the UW Collaborative for Reproductive Equity show that the overwhelming number of Wisconsin doctors favor abortion as part of women’s healthcare. We turn to the Collaborative’s Director Jenny Higgins, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and gender and women studies. Thanks very much for being here.

Jenny Higgins:

Thanks for having me and paying attention to this issue. I appreciate it.

Frederica Freyberg:

So why did you conduct this survey of UW School of Medicine Public Health physicians?

Jenny Higgins:

We sometimes have this sense because of the way abortion is covered in the media that there is a 50/50 break down of people who feel supportive of or against abortion, and it seemed importance to actually document the precise number of physicians in particular who felt supportive of abortion or concerned about abortion restrictions in part because as physicians, they’re the best people to be in a position to make the evidence-based decisions about reproductive healthcare.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what did the survey find then?

Jenny Higgins

We found overwhelmingly that physicians not only are supportive of abortion, but that they think that women’s health in Wisconsin will get worse if Roe v. Wade is overturned. So 91% of over 900 physicians we surveyed said that women’s health in our state would get worse if abortion were to become illegal. Over 90% of physicians also expressed at least some level of concern about legislative interference and the doctor-patient relationship.

Frederica Freyberg:

First, how would it get worse for women?

Jenny Higgins:

Well, we didn’t ask that in that particular study. In another study, we interviewed about 23 healthcare providers who are more specifically involved in reproductive healthcare and abortion care, so not a general population of physicians but this was now a more specialized population of physicians, and we asked them some of their feelings about what might happen as a result of Roe’s overturn. They described a number of concerns they had about that. One being both short- and long-term negative impacts on health and well-being. So as an example, carrying a pregnancy to term and giving birth is inherently much more risky than getting a first trimester abortion, so just by being forced to have pregnancies and give births that people weren’t expecting to, their rate of maternal morbidity and mortality can go up. Also the emotional and social consequences of not being able to obtain abortions, physicians in our survey reported that people wouldn’t do as well if they weren’t able to — they and their children wouldn’t do as well if they weren’t able to receive the abortions they wanted to have.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what would legislative interference look like?

Jenny Higgins:

It’s a good question, and that question was written in a very broad way. We were interested in — we wanted to see a little bit as — did physicians feel somehow differently about abortion-related interference versus other types of legislative interference, but I think what I took away from that finding was that in general, at least the physicians we surveyed, there was a sense of if — that we as physicians or I as a physician am in the best place to make decisions about healthcare or how healthcare services should occur as opposed to people who don’t have that background. But mostly I think it’s just an indication that physicians in our state want to make sure that they are the ones who are ensuring that healthcare programs occur in a certain way.

Frederica Freyberg:

Does there exist a stigma around the procedure, even for physicians who support it medically?

Jenny Higgins:

Yeah, tremendous there’s stigma around the procedure, and we found this in our survey as well. So one way it’s manifested is that while, on average, people in our survey were incredibly supportive of abortion, they perceived their peers to be less supportive on average, right? In part because abortion is stigmatized. So everyone feels as if everyone else is a little less supportive than they are, when in fact the norm is to be quite supportive. They also — a significant number of physicians in our survey said that they were worried about alienating their peers or their patients if they were to take a public stance about abortion. Again, suggesting that there’s some social stigma surrounding this topic.

Frederica Freyberg:

Very, very complicated stuff. Jenny Higgins, thanks very much. Thanks for joining us.

Jenny Higgins:

Take care.