ArticleBMC medical ethics2024
Conscientious objection and barriers to abortion within a specific regional context - an expert interview study.
Article in BMC medical ethics, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reproductive self-determination and regulation of termination of pregnancy in Germany: current controversies and developments.Journal of medical ethics · 2026Article
- Conscience clause in emergency contraception: professional uncertainty, attitudes, and regulatory preferences among pharmacists and pharmacy students. A cross-sectional study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Cultural Competence and Ethics Among Nurses in Primary Healthcare: Exploring Their Interrelationship and Implications for Care Delivery.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Women's wellbeing as an empty declaration? A qualitative exploration of challenges in accessing termination of pregnancy due to fetal anomaly in Germany.BMC medical ethics · 2025Article
- Exploration of clinical ethics consultation in Uganda: a case study of Uganda Cancer Institute.BMC medical ethics · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundWhile most countries that allow abortion on women's request also grant physicians a right to conscientious objection (CO), this has proven to constitute a potential barrier to abortion access. Conscientious objection is regarded as an understudied phenomenon the effects of which have not yet been examined in Germany. Based on expert interviews, this study aims to exemplarily reconstruct the processes of abortion in a mid-sized city in Germany, and to identify potential effects of conscientious objection.
methodsFive semi-structured interviews with experts from all instances involved have been conducted in April 2020. The experts gave an insight into the medical care structures with regard to abortion procedures, the application and manifestations of conscientious objection in medical practice, and its impact on the care of pregnant women. A content analysis of the transcribed interviews was performed.
resultsBoth the procedural processes and the effects of conscientious objection are reported to differ significantly between early abortions performed before the 12th week of pregnancy and late abortions performed at the second and third trimester. Conscientious objection shows structural consequences as it is experienced to further reduce the number of possible providers, especially for early abortions. On the individual level of the doctor-patient relationship, the experts confirmed the neutrality and patient-orientation of the vast majority of doctors. Still, it is especially late abortions that seem to be vulnerable to barriers imposed by conscientious objection in individual medical encounters.
conclusionOur findings indicate that conscientious objection possibly imposes barriers to both early and late abortion provision and especially in the last procedural steps, which from an ethical point of view is especially problematic. To oblige hospitals to partake in abortion provision in Germany has the potential to prevent negative impacts of conscientious objection on women's rights on an individual as well as on a structural level.
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