Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca. Monday, 31 March 2014
The Directorate of Equality and Gender (DIEG) of the Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca (UABJO), in coordination with organizations such as Catholics For a Free Choice (CFFC), National Catholic Youth Network for a Free Choice (RNCJDD) and The Population Council, conducted a survey ‘On the Understanding and Attitudes of the Student Population Regarding the Termination of Pregnancy, 2014’, with the support of the UABJO Faculty of Law and Social Sciences.
The goal of this research project is to evaluate how an intervention designed to promote positive attitudes and reduce stigma related to abortion influences students’ response, using a validated scale to measure the stigma associated with abortion.
Meanwhile the head of the DIEG explained that, at the end of this process, public forums will be held together with CFFC for the intervention group, which will address the right to decide, as well as two workshops for each group, aimed at promoting positive attitudes and reducing stigma related to abortion. These activities are part of the link between the university and society.
Supervisor Martha Sánchez Antillón commented that positions vary according to education, culture, religion, etc. This study seeks to measure the stigma from the point of view of the students. It has already been carried out in communities in the highlands and other settlements: there are women with a university degree who are in favor, while others are not, even when a woman’s life is at risk.
Four control groups participated alongside four more, who were intervened upon. The groups were made up of students from the first and second year, while INSAD, a firm experienced in qualitative studies, was commissioned to conduct the survey, in which issues are contemplated related to the understanding of young pregnant women under the age of 20 of the circumstances under which an abortion should be legal or whether to report it or not, among others.
