IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v335y2023ics0277953623005737.html

“Technically an abortion”: Understanding perceptions and definitions of abortion in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • VandeVusse, Alicia J.
  • Mueller, Jennifer
  • Kirstein, Marielle
  • Strong, Joe
  • Lindberg, Laura D.

Abstract

Anti-abortion legislation in the United States exploits misinformation and ignores medical definitions to curtail access to essential healthcare. Little is known about how individuals most likely to need this care define abortion, in general or as distinct from miscarriage, and how this might impact access to, utilization of, and experiences of care. Using mixed-method card sort and vignette data from cognitive interviews (n = 64) and a national online survey (n = 2009), we examined individuals’ understandings of pregnancy outcomes including abortion and miscarriage.

Suggested Citation

  • VandeVusse, Alicia J. & Mueller, Jennifer & Kirstein, Marielle & Strong, Joe & Lindberg, Laura D., 2023. "“Technically an abortion”: Understanding perceptions and definitions of abortion in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:335:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623005737
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116216
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623005737
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116216?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Isaac Maddow-Zimet & Laura D. Lindberg & Kate Castle, 2021. "State-Level Variation in Abortion Stigma and Women and Men’s Abortion Underreporting in the USA," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(6), pages 1149-1161, December.
    2. Joffe, C., 2013. "The politicization of abortion: And the evolution of abortion counseling," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(1), pages 57-65.
    3. Suzanne O. Bell & Mary E. Fissell, 2021. "A Little Bit Pregnant? Productive Ambiguity and Fertility Research," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(2), pages 505-526, June.
    4. Coast, Ernestina & Norris, Alison H. & Moore, Ann M. & Freeman, Emily, 2018. "Trajectories of women's abortion-related care: A conceptual framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 199-210.
    5. Brittany Moore & Cheri Poss & Ernestina Coast & Samantha R Lattof & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, 2021. "The economics of abortion and its links with stigma: A secondary analysis from a scoping review on the economics of abortion," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, February.
    6. Laura Lindberg & Kathryn Kost & Isaac Maddow-Zimet & Sheila Desai & Mia Zolna, 2020. "Abortion Reporting in the United States: An Assessment of Three National Fertility Surveys," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 899-925, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heide M. Jackson & Michael S. Rendall, 2025. "Addressing Abortion Underreporting in Surveys with the List Experiment: Lifetime and Five-Year Abortion Incidence with Multivariate Estimation of Socio-Demographic Associations in Two U.S. States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 44(1), pages 1-28, February.
    2. Strong, Joe & Lamptey, Nii Lartey Samuel & Quartey, Nii Kwartelai & Owoo, Nii Kwartei Richard, 2022. "“If I Am Ready”: Exploring the relationships between masculinities, pregnancy, and abortion among men in James Town, Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    3. Karen Benjamin Guzzo & Gabrielle Juteau & Wendy D. Manning & Monica A. Longmore & Peggy C. Giordano & Alyssa G. Sherman, 2026. "Consistent Reports of Pregnancy/Birth Contexts and Links to Parental Experiences," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 45(2), pages 1-31, April.
    4. Sankar Mukhopadhyay & Aina Katsikas, 2024. "Abortion policy, politics, and mental health: evidence from the Dobbs decision," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1551-1578, December.
    5. Brittany Moore & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers & Ernestina Coast & Samantha R Lattof & Cheri Poss, 2021. "History and scientific background on the economics of abortion," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-9, September.
    6. Sharan Sharma & Sonalde Desai & Debasis Barik & Om Prakash Sharma, 2024. "Gone and forgotten? Predictors of birth history omissions in India," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 50(32), pages 929-966.
    7. Mónica L. Caudillo & Seungwan Kim & Jaein Lee & Jingwen Liu, 2024. "Racial-Ethnic Disparities in Dyadic Pregnancy Intentions Preceding Births in the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(2), pages 1-14, April.
    8. Polina Zvavitch & Michael S. Rendall & Constanza Hurtado-Acuna & Rachel M. Shattuck, 2021. "Contraceptive Consistency and Poverty After Birth," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(6), pages 1277-1311, December.
    9. Martha J. Bailey & Lea Bart & Vanessa Wanner Lang, 2022. "The Missing Baby Bust: The Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Contraceptive Use, Pregnancy, and Childbirth Among Low-Income Women," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(4), pages 1549-1569, August.
    10. Ouedraogo, Ramatou & Juma, Kenneth, 2020. "From the shadows to light. Perceptions of women and healthcare providers of post-abortion care in Burkina Faso," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    11. Karen Benjamin Guzzo & Kathleen Broussard, 2026. "Women’s Reproductive Health Conditions and Fertility Goals," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 45(2), pages 1-20, April.
    12. Lonkila Moussa Zan & Onikepe Owolabi & Adama Baguiya & Ramatou Ouedraogo & Martin Bangha & Caron Kim & Clémentine Rossier, 2024. "Using Respondent-Driven Sampling to measure abortion safety in restrictive contexts: Results from Kaya (Burkina Faso) and Nairobi (Kenya)," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 50(47), pages 1387-1422.
    13. Marianne Kjelsvik & Ragnhild J. Tveit Sekse & Asgjerd Litleré Moi & Elin M. Aasen & Eva Gjengedal, 2018. "Walking on a tightrope—Caring for ambivalent women considering abortions in the first trimester," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(21-22), pages 4192-4202, November.
    14. Samantha R Lattof & Ernestina Coast & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers & Brittany Moore & Cheri Poss, 2020. "The mesoeconomics of abortion: A scoping review and analysis of the economic effects of abortion on health systems," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-25, November.
    15. Pleasants, Elizabeth & Parham, Lindsay & Weidert, Karen & Anderson, Emma & Dolgins, Eliza & Prata, Ndola & Upadhyay, Ushma D. & Marshall, Cassondra, 2024. "Waiting to start abortion: A qualitative exploration of narratives of waiting shared in a Reddit community for abortion post-Dobbs leak in 2022," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    16. Martha J. Bailey & Emilia Brito Rebolledo & Deniz Gorgulu & Kelsey Figone & Vanessa W. Lang & Alexa Prettyman & Vanessa Dalton, 2025. "Does Increasing Financial Access to Contraception in the U.S. Reduce Undesired Pregnancies? Evidence from the M-CARES Randomized Control Trial at Two Years," NBER Working Papers 34400, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Haaland, Marte E.S. & Mumba Zulu, Joseph & Moland, Karen Marie & Haukanes, Haldis & Astrid Blystad,, 2020. "When abortion becomes public - Everyday politics of reproduction in rural Zambia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    18. Altshuler, Anna L. & Ojanen-Goldsmith, Alison & Blumenthal, Paul D. & Freedman, Lori R., 2017. "A good abortion experience: A qualitative exploration of women's needs and preferences in clinical care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 109-116.
    19. Isaac Maddow-Zimet & Laura D. Lindberg & Kate Castle, 2021. "State-Level Variation in Abortion Stigma and Women and Men’s Abortion Underreporting in the USA," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(6), pages 1149-1161, December.
    20. Okine, Lucinda & Dako-Gyeke, Mavis, 2020. "Drivers of repeat pregnancy among teenage mothers in Accra, Ghana," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:335:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623005737. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.