Opinion of medical students about prescription, counseling and practice of voluntary interruptions of pregnancy

BACKGROUND: A future prospect was carried out of the professional trends regarding prescription, counseling and practice of voluntary interruptions of pregnancy (VIP). METHODS: To this end, a questionnaire was administered to 177 last term students of the Valencia and Alicante Schools of Medicine regarding the opinions of the current law on VIP in Spain and the professional trends of approach, with practical examples of the four instances depenalized by the Spanish law. RESULTS: For 44% of the sample the present law is insufficient, 30% agree with it and 13% think that the present law threatens life. The instance which elicited a highest number of favorable professional trends was congenital malformation (85%), followed by physical problems (78%) and psychical problems (63%). Only 60% of students would take a favorable attitude in case of rape. The students without religious practice, who vote progressive political parties and who think that present law is insufficient have a significant tendency towards attitudes favoring VIP. Significant sex differences among students were not found. CONCLUSIONS: Although probably to a lesser degree than in the present, in the near future the unfavorable attitudes of physicians will continue hindering the access of women to the services of VIP. A wide debate and more studies are required for a better definition of the implications of this phenomenon for public health purposes