Capturing Obstructive Behaviour (COB): Experiences Along the Abortion Care Pathway

Professor Louise Keogh
l.keogh@unimelb.edu.au

Project Details

This research project aims to describe the nature and geographic patterns of obstructive behaviour enacted towards abortion seekers in Australia.

The study examines four hypotheses:

1. Abortion seekers in Australia are being obstructed on their pathway to abortion care by people who work in various roles across the health system.

2. There are geographic patterns in abortion obstruction (e.g. clusters in some areas).

3. Healthcare workers who interact with abortion seekers hear about their experiences of obstruction.

4. Some healthcare workers are willing to anonymously report about cases they hear about of obstruction experienced by abortion seekers.

Accordingly, we have designed an online data capture tool for people working in the healthcare system to report on the obstruction they hear about from their patients/clients.

It includes two phases:

1. An initial proof-of-concept stage to evaluate the acceptability and usability of our data gathering mechanism

2. A second phase to refine this tool and enable implementation and data collection on a wider scale

Participants are eligible if they work in the health system and encounter abortion seekers anywhere on their abortion care pathway (including at the information provision, referral, advice, abortion procedure, abortion management and after care stages). This may include health professionals such as medical practitioners, nurses and nurse practitioners, midwives, pharmacists, social workers, psychologists and reproductive health counselling and information provision services.

The proof-of-concept stage is now live. Resources for participants registered in the study.