"Obviously there is a conflict between confidentiality and what you are required to do by law”: Chilean university faculty and student perspectives on reporting unlawful abortions

M.Antonia Biggs, Lidia Casas Becerra, Sara Victoria Correa, Finley Baba, Alejandra Ramm

Background and objectives

While Chile recently decriminalized abortion in cases of rape, lethal fetal anomaly, and to save a woman's life, most abortions are still criminalized. We assessed medical and midwifery school faculty and students' views on punishing and reporting people involved in unlawful abortion, and their understanding of their obligation to protect patient confidentiality and to report unlawful abortions.

Methods

We interviewed 30 medical and midwifery school clinician faculty from seven public, private, secular and Catholic-affiliated universities, all located in the metropolitan region of Santiago, Chile. Medical (n = 239) and midwifery (n = 79) students at these same seven universities completed an online survey. We coded faculty interview transcripts, and analyzed codes related to maintaining patient confidentiality and reporting unlawful abortion. We summarized student views related to reporting and imprisoning people involved in unlawful abortion, and used general estimating equation (GEE) models to identify the factors associated with support for criminalization.

Results

Faculty and students generally did not support reporting or imprisoning anyone involved in an unlawful abortion and believed that protecting patient information takes precedence over reporting. Yet, faculty described pressures to report in the public sector and several cases where they or their colleagues were involved in reports. Most students somewhat/strongly agreed (78%) that patient information concerning an unlawful abortion should be kept confidential; 35% strongly/somewhat agreed that a clinician involved in an unlawful surgical abortion should be imprisoned, and 18% agreed that the woman involved should be imprisoned, with students from secular universities being significantly less likely to support reporting and punishing people involved in unlawful abortion, than students from Catholic universities.

Discussion

There is a need to clarify clinicians' ethical obligations in abortion care, in particular in Catholic universities, so that they can ensure that their patients have access to high quality confidential health care services.

Defending Human Rights During a the Covid-19 Pandemic (with Luisa Cabal, UNAIDS)

Luisa Cabal
2020 | Oxford Human Rights Hub

In this episode, we discuss the intersection between the responses to public health crisis and human rights with Luisa Cabal, Acting Director of the Community Support, Social Justice, and Inclusion at UNAIDS. UNAIDS recently published a guidance paper of lessons learned from other pandemics, such as the HIV pandemic, about how to respect and uphold human rights during exceptional times.

Download a full transcript: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/media/how-to-uph…ith-luisa-cabal/

Interview with: Luisa Cabal (UNAIDS)
Hosted by: Mónica Arango Olaya
Produced and edited by: Christy Callaway-Gale
Executive producer: Kira Allmann
Shownotes: Sarah Dobbie
Music: Rosemary Allmann

Mapping Constitutional Commitments on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. A Global Survey

Lucía Berro Pizzarossa
2017 | Transcript