With nearly 13% of maternal deaths being attributed to unsafe abortion there is a need to implement new strategies to improve access to safe services. As developing regions and legally restricted areas lead these numbers, further evidence must be presented demonstrating tailored and actionable strategies for these settings. In Pakistan abortion is legally restricted and the country continues to face a high burden of maternal death and disability, much of which is directly or indirectly attributable to unsafe abortion. The community-based distribution of misoprostol for early abortion has the potential to reduce harm from unsafe abortion in Pakistan and other low-resource settings where abortion is legally restricted. This study employed a multi-methods approach to evaluate this intervention in Sindh, Pakistan and consisted of a logbook review, interviews with lay providers, and in-depth interviews with program beneficiaries. Our results suggest that the community-based distribution of misoprostol is an effective and promising strategy for improving access to safe abortion care. Efforts to implement or strengthen similar programs appears warranted.

There is an extensive body of literature exploring the way in which a variety of factors affect a person's attitudes towards abortion. There is significantly less research, however, on the way in which a person's attitude towards abortion affects their attitudes towards other issues. At the same time, there is evidence to suggest that a growing number of people are using their "pro- life" stance on abortion to influence their stance on other issues that revolve around the quality and sustenance of life, and that Generation Y may be more liberal than previous generations on most, if not all, issues. This research seeks to explore the extent to which "pro-life progressivism" may have affected Generation Y with two sets of logistic regression analysis. The first analysis looks exclusively at members of Generation Y, and explores the effect of a person's attitudes toward abortion on their attitudes towards government spending on childcare, assistance to the poor, and healthcare. This is to see if there is a difference between pro-life and pro-choice members of Generation Y in the way they approach other issues relating to the quality and sustenance of life. The second analysis compares pro-life members of Generation Y to older cohorts. The results show that attitudes towards abortion among members of Generation Y had no effect on their attitudes towards childcare and healthcare. Furthermore, the attitudes of pro- life members of Generation Y were statistically no different from older cohorts, with the exception of members of the Silent Generation on the issue of government assistance to healthcare. Further research, particularly of the qualitative nature, is suggested to delve more deeply into this research question.

The majority of today's college students engage in sexual intercourse (Abler & Sedlacek, 1989), generally with multiple partners (Netting, 1980). Many of these sexually active students use contraception; many do not. Since students are engaging in intercourse and some are failing to use contraceptives properly or not using contraceptives at all, it is not surprising that 12% of college students report either experiencing or being involved in unplanned pregnancy (Elliot & Brantley, 1997). Wiley, James, Funey, and Jordan-Belver (1997) estimate that this number may be closer to 23% of college students. While both studies derived their different percentages from different college student populations, both percentages are significant. Little descriptive knowledge about the experience of unplanned pregnancy for college women exists. The purpose of this study was to describe traditional aged (18-22 years old) women's perceptions of the effects of unplanned pregnancy while enrolled full-time in an institution of higher education. The study examined the effects of the pregnancy from conception through the pregnancy's outcome. It also examined long term or on-going effects that women experienced after the termination or miscarriage. The study did not investigate the effects women attributed to the pregnancy's outcome. Ten traditional aged college women who had experienced an unplanned pregnancy while enrolled as a full-time student in a university in the mid-Atlantic region volunteered to participate in a one to two hour interview. The interview questions focused on the effects they experienced as a result of the pregnancy. The women were recruited to the study through flyers and personal announcements I made to several large undergraduate classes and student organizations. The sample of this study was ethnically diverse. Five of the ten women were ethnic minorities: three African American women, one Asian American woman, and one bi-racial Hispanic woman. The sample was similar in the outcome of the pregnancy. Nine women terminated the pregnancy; one woman miscarried. There are several significant findings of the study. First, the women in this study did not become pregnant as a result of a casual sexual encounter. All of the women conceived within the context of a committed relationship. This runs counter to the stereotype that college women become pregnant as a result of careless, "one night stands." Second, women reported a significant number of long term effects associated with the pregnancy. Long term effects are those that last a year or more. The most prevalent of these effects are feelings of guilt and fear of being stigmatized for their experience. These women are haunted by feelings of guilt. The guilt makes it difficult for them to associate with peers and family because the subject of pregnancy and abortion are discussed frequently. The women who participated in this study fear being socially marked or stigmatized because of the pregnancy. They fear they will be judged negatively by their peers and family because they experienced pregnancy and abortion. The guilt, shame, fear, and sense of stigma the participants reported are not just individual attributes but a reflection of wider social views about women's responsibility for sexuality and reproduction. Most women in this study did not tell their families of their experience. The majority of the women revealed their situation to their partner and only one or two friends. Keeping the situation a secret heightened the sense of isolation and depression experienced by the women. The issue of unplanned pregnancy among college women is rarely discussed. The women who experienced this did not feel safe enough on campus to come forward to seek help. They suffered personal anguish and often negative academic impacts. Universities need to create safe environments for these women to disclose their experience. Educational programs and support groups run by counseling centers or women's centers would be a step toward a safer environment for these women. Families and friends of women who experience an unplanned pregnancy can assist their loved one by expressing emotional support and being cautious about the judgmental things they say about pregnancy and abortion. Despite being conceived within a committed relationship, participants clearly saw the pregnancy as something that was their responsibility. Findings suggest that some women experience a developmental process in their response to the unplanned pregnancy, moving from a position of irresponsibility to a position of responsibility. Future research may examine the stages of this process and how it compares to existing developmental theory. / Master of Arts

Background: Despite the overwhelming evidence that medication abortion care can be delivered safely and effectively through telemedicine services, Canadian abortion care providers have historically underutilized this modality of service delivery. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated public health measures designed to flatten the curve both exacerbated existing inequities in access and prompted service delivery innovations in abortion care. -- Objectives: This project aimed to explore the experiences of women, transgender men, non-binary folks, gender non-conforming, and Two-Spirit individuals with the capacity for pregnancy (womxn) with telemedicine abortion care. By understanding facilitators and barriers to telemedicine use as well as abortion seekers' satisfaction with remote interactions, we aimed to identify ways of improving and fortifying the abortion care system in Ontario. -- Methods: Using a multi-modal recruitment strategy, we conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with womxn who obtained a telemedicine abortion in Ontario after March 15, 2020. We used inductive and deductive techniques to analyze these data for content and themes. -- Results: The two Ontarian womxn that we interviewed were highly satisfied with the telemedicine abortion care they received and would recommend this service delivery modality with others. -- Conclusions: The results from our pilot align with a growing body of research calling for the demedicalization of medication abortion care in Canada. Future research that expands on these findings can have both policy and service delivery implications.

Since the legalization of abortion, some research studies have argued that abortion has a neutral effect when considering other coexistent factors (e.g. Adler et al., 1990; Major et al., 2000; Steinberg & Russo, 2008). Other studies have concluded that abortion has a negative influence on women's psyche (e.g. Congleton & Calhoun, 1993; Cougle, Reardon, & Coleman, 2005; Hamana et al., 2010). College populations have been generally excluded from abortion research, even though, in 2007, 57% of women obtaining abortions were between the ages of 20 and 30 years (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). This study intended to measure the influence of induced abortion on the current mental health status of college women and describe the characteristics of women obtaining abortions. An online survey was administered to female college students (N= 46). The participants were divided into two pregnancy outcome groups: (1) women who reported a history of fetal deliveries, and (2) women who reported a history of abortion. Each group was asked if abortion or fetal delivery contributed to their current mental health status. Independent variables included the participants' pregnancy outcome (abortion vs. delivery) and establishing if abortion/fetal delivery contributed to current mental health (yes/no answer). The dependent variables included current psychological distress symptoms as measured by the nine primary symptom dimensions of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. The data were analyzed using a two-way mixed-design MANOVA. Evidence indicated that psychological symptoms were not dependent on respondents' perception of whether or not current mental health was affected by pregnancy outcome. This study does not support public policies or practice based on the belief that abortion emotionally harms women. Further research should concentrate in strategies to prevent unwanted pregnancy in order to reduce the need for abortion.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

M.S.

In light of its title, ""The Petting Zoo,""? many of the poems in this collection exist on the page as animals, domestic ones mostly like cats and dogs and birds. Animals that have been tamed and trained to eat out of bowl or Petri dish, shit in certain places, and animals that have grown accustomed to the habitual pet and good good bird affirmation of owner. Katy wanna cracker? To be looked at. To be fed. To be loved. These poems are personal. They are an attempt to articulate the desires of a speaker who is in a constant state of trying to understand the world and the obsessive concerns that decorate her life: think memory, think past, think brother, think sex, think nature, empathy, imagination, abortion, old dog, abortion, love, all of which show up time and time and again throughout the collection. Touch and to be touched, to be whole and yet to break. These poems, perhaps, approach what it means to be alive, and even more specific, what it means to be alive and working through the aftermath of the past and day-to-day that for the speaker often feels broken and incomplete. / Master of Fine Arts