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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Stan Becker, PhD¹, Eva Bazant, MPH¹, Carole Meyers, MD², and Raquel Samson, MPH². (1) Population and Family Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-955-4485, sbecker@jhsph.edu, (2) Planned Parenthood of Maryland, 330 N. Howard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Over a million abortions are performed every year in the United States. Many women were not using contraception when they became pregnant. Up to half of women seeking abortions are accompanied by a male partner. The aim of the first phase of this study was to determine the interest of women and male partners to have couples counseling for contraception at the time of the abortion procedure.

In a Baltimore, Maryland clinic, a survey was self-administered to a stratified random sample of 57 clients and partners in the abortion waiting room--17 women who came alone, 20 women who came with a partner, and 21 male partners of other women who attended the clinic. The respondents were predominately in their twenties, single, African-American, had some college education, and were in sexual relationships of more than one year.

Half of women who came alone, over half of male partners, and three-quarters of women who came with a partner were open to the idea of couples counseling for contraception; however, 38% of women wanted counseling alone. In answers to open-ended questions about couples counseling, many women mentioned a shared responsibility with their partner for contraceptive use and the desire for joint discussion on contraception and condom use.

We conclude that for a substantial proportion of women who come with male partners, offering couples contraceptive counseling may be appropriate. Such a male involvement intervention will be implemented in phase 2 of the study.

Learning Objectives:

1.Determine the level of interest of women and male partners to have couples counseling for contraception at the time of the abortion procedure
• List the topics that women and men are concerned with regarding couples counseling for contraception

Keywords: Contraception, Partner Involvement

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No