Connecticut physicians' attitudes toward abortion.

While attitudes regarding abortion and its legalization among various segments of the general American public have undergone considerable analysis since the early 1960s1., 3little is currently known about physicians' attitudes.2' 4 In order to obtain more extensive data on the broad range of factors relating to physicians' attitudes toward abortion, all Connecticut-licensed specialists in obstetrics and gynecology and a small sample of family physicians were invited to participate in a study of several aspects of the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components of attitudes toward abortion. In addition to collecting biographic data, interviews focused on changes in attitudes toward abortion and factors related to these changes, concerns and conflicts resulting from the legalization of abortion, and the impact of legalization on the physician's type of relationships with patients, colleagues, hospital, and office staff. This paper reports results of the first phase of this study, completed during the spring of 1974, and is limited to the presentation of data concerning physicians' current opinions of abortion under a range of circumstances.