Legalization, safer and more preventive than restriction

In this paper, the goal aimed was to bring out consequences that go along with illegal and unsafe abortion and benefits attached to legal and safe abortion in order to urge countries with restrictive abortion laws to reform their legislations so as to save women’s lives from higher morbidity and mortality resulting from unsafe abortion and to protect their health and human rights. In fact, a large number of scholars have established the relationships between developing countries and restrictive abortion laws, restrictive abortion grounds and illegal abortion, illegal abortion and unsafe abortion, unsafe abortion and higher maternal morbidity and mortality. From that, it has been stressed that most of developing countries have restrictive abortion legislation, which fosters a large amount of illicit and unsafe abortions, responsible of such consequences as higher maternal morbidity and mortality. Since restrictive laws, instead of decreasing illegal abortion and its consequences, only increase them and make women run a great risk, it has been demonstrated that legalizing and granting access to safe abortion is the most effective prevention of criminal and unsafe abortions.

4318 A Qualitative Study of Men’s Abortion Attitudes in Restrictive States

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Despite its critical importance in reproductive health, access to abortion care continues to be impeded by laws grounded in religious, political, or other ideologies. We will characterize abortion attitudes among US men who live in areas with restrictive abortion laws using qualitative methods. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We will use a semi-structured interview guide to elicit men’s attitudes about abortion, characterized within moral, legal, religious, political, and other domains. Inclusion criteria include English-speaking cisgender men, ages 18 to 65 who live in states with the most restrictive abortion laws as defined by the Guttmacher Institute. We will recruit participants through Facebook ads and interviews will continue until theoretic sufficiency. Using an inductive thematic analysis approach, transcripts will be coded for emergent themes by two researchers independently in QRS NVivo 12.0, with concurrent refinement of themes as interviews are completed. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We will elucidate emergent themes regarding men’s abortion attitudes which could include how men think of abortion as a medical, moral, or personal reality, why they do or do not support abortion provision, among many other possibilities. We anticipate that researchers can use the data obtained from this study to begin to build a conceptual framework of abortion attitudes among US men who lives in restrictive states. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: This study will fill an important gap in the literature by qualitatively characterizing abortion attitudes among a population that has political influence on abortion access. Results can inform policy and advocacy campaigns aimed at shifting public abortion attitudes towards increased acceptance.

Laws Restricting Access to Abortion Services and Infant Mortality Risk in the United States

Objectives: Since the US Supreme Court′s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, states have enacted laws restricting access to abortion services. Previous studies suggest that restricting access to abortion is a risk factor for adverse maternal and infant health. The objective of this investigation is to study the relationship between the type and the number of state-level restrictive abortion laws and infant mortality risk. Methods: We used data on 11,972,629 infants and mothers from the US Cohort Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Files 2008–2010. State-level abortion laws included Medicaid funding restrictions, mandatory parental involvement, mandatory counseling, mandatory waiting period, and two-visit laws. Multilevel logistic regression was used to determine whether type or number of state-level restrictive abortion laws during year of birth were associated with odds of infant mortality. Results: Compared to infants living in states with no restrictive laws, infants living in states with one or two restrictive laws (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.99–1.18) and those living in states with 3 to 5 restrictive laws (AOR = 1.10; 95% CI = 1.01–1.20) were more likely to die. Separate analyses examining the relationship between parental involvement laws and infant mortality risk, stratified by maternal age, indicated that significant associations were observed among mothers aged ≤19 years (AOR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.00–1.19), and 20 to 25 years (AOR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.03–1.17). No significant association was observed among infants born to older mothers. Conclusion: Restricting access to abortion services may increase the risk for infant mortality.

Persistence and Change in Morality Policy: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Politics of Abortion in Ireland and Poland

On the issue of abortion, Ireland and Poland have been among the most conservative countries in Europe. Their legal and cultural approaches to this issue have been deeply influenced by the institution of the Catholic Church and its purported role as a defender of an authentic national identity. However, their political climates for abortion reform are increasingly divergent: Ireland has liberalised its abortion law substantially since 2018, while Poland is moving towards further criminalisation with the repeated introduction of restrictive laws in parliament. Both have seen active pro-choice movements who mobilise for reform and widespread non-compliance with their restrictive abortion laws, but the policy impact of these trends varies significantly. What accounts for this difference? This article draws on comparative analysis of Ireland and Poland to assess their divergent trajectories on abortion reform, arguing that the most significant driver of change between the two is the disparity in influence of the Catholic Church on politics and policymaking.