<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/05/abortion-access-study-rural-new-south-wales-women>
"A small but influential number of medical practitioners who obstruct abortion
care or are uninterested in providing it are leaving women unable to access
abortion in many parts of rural New South Wales, a study has found.
It has led to informal and often underground networks of health workers
providing information and access to abortion care to patients, the study found,
with these providers burning out due to high demand and attitudes toward them.
Dr Anna Noonan, a research fellow at the University of Sydney’s school of rural
health, interviewed 16 healthcare providers, including GP registrars, GP
obstetricians, nurses, midwives and women’s health nurses asking them about
unintended pregnancy.
All of the staff worked in the western region of NSW, where 17% of the
population is female and of reproductive age (15 to 44 years), and where there
is only one publicly advertised abortion service.
“We found the decision of one person in a position of power can result in there
being no access to an abortion service at all,” Noonan said.
“What I ended up hearing from the primary care providers was that they
experienced this constant, often passive obstruction by the health system at
multiple layers.”
For example, doctors training as rural generalists and willing to provide
abortion healthcare found the rural clinical hospitals where they did their
work placements did not provide abortions.
“So they’re learning to provide healthcare without receiving any clinical
training or exposure to abortion,” Noonan said. “It meant many felt
underprepared and undertrained to provide (surgical abortion) care.”
The study – published in the journal
Rural and Remote Health – found that one
tertiary institution had even requested censorship of education about abortion
services during student clinical placements."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
