”You are not the one to decide” : A qualitative interview study on men's experience of abortion

The purpose of the study is to examine based on a qualitative method how men interpret that they have experienced an abortion, how they have interpreted that they have experienced the support of the environment afterwards, and what strategies they experienced that they used to manage the experience. Based on semi-structured interviews, five participants from Sweden described their experiences, which were then analyzed based on an inductive approach according to the method of interpretation Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Five prominent main themes could be distinguished: 1) An internal war between reason and emotion 2) The male strong ideal 3) Changed self-image and future 4) Being able to participate in women's conditions and 5) Lack of support and information from the healthcare. These main themes then consist of a number of sub-themes that describe the participants' detailed experiences. The results we obtained were in line with previous research and show that it is not an easy experience to go through and that a lot of ambivalent feelings arise in men who undergo an abortion. The main aspects of the study show that all participants believe that it is the woman's unquestionable right to make the abortion decision, but that everyone had a desire to be supportive of the woman, regardless of whether or not they shared the opinion of doing the abortion. Some of the men who felt involved in the abortion process experienced the event in a better way than those who felt excluded. Most of the men felt invisible by the care and asked for more information about the abortion process. The study shows the importance of considering men's participation in the abortion process as there is a clear psychological impact on men