title: Opinions on conscientious objection to induced abortion among Finnish medical and nursing students and professionals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Conscientious objection (CO) to participating in induced abortion is not present in the Finnish health care system or legislation unlike in many other European countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a questionnaire survey with the 1(st)- and the last-year medical and nursing students and professionals (548 respondents; response rate 66-100%) including several aspects of the abortion process and their relation to CO in 2013.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The male medical respondents chose later time points of pregnancy than the nursing respondents when considering when the embryo/fetus "becomes a person". Of all respondents, 3.5-14.1% expressed a personal wish to CO. The medical professionals supported the right to CO more often (34.2%) than the nursing professionals (21.4%), while ≥62.4% could work with someone expressing CO. Yet ≥57.9% of the respondents anticipated social problems at work communities caused by CO. Most respondents considered self-reported religious/ethical conviction to be adequate for CO but, at the same time, 30.1-50.7% considered that no conviction would be sufficient. The respondents most commonly included the medical doctor conducting surgical or medical abortion to be eligible to CO. The nursing respondents considered that vacuum suction would be a better justification for CO than medical abortion. The indications most commonly included to potential CO were second-trimester abortions and social reasons. Among the medical respondents, the men were more willing to grant CO also in case of a life-threatening emergency of the pregnant woman.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While the respondents mostly seemed to consider the continuation of adequate services important if CO is introduced, the viewpoint was often focused on the staff and surgical abortion procedure instead of the patients. The issue proved to be complex, which should be taken into consideration for legislation.
authors.affiliation: University of Eastern Finland, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine/Anatomy, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211, Kuopio, Finland. petteri.nieminen@uef.fi.
authors.forename: Petteri
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nieminen
authors.affiliation: University of Eastern Finland, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211, Kuopio, Finland. sampitka@student.uef.fi.
authors.forename: Saara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lappalainen
authors.affiliation: University of Eastern Finland, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine/Anatomy, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211, Kuopio, Finland. paulr@student.uef.fi.
authors.forename: Pauliina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ristimäki
authors.affiliation: University of Eastern Finland, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211, Kuopio, Finland. markku.myllykangas@uef.fi.
authors.forename: Markku
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Myllykangas
authors.affiliation: University of Eastern Finland, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine/Anatomy, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211, Kuopio, Finland. anne-mari.mustonen@uef.fi.|University of Eastern Finland, Faculty of Science and Forestry, Department of Biology, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101, Joensuu, Finland. anne-mari.mustonen@uef.fi.
authors.forename: Anne-Mari
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mustonen
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000941:ethics*; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D009726:Nurses; D028723:Personhood; D010820:Physicians; D011247:Pregnancy; D011264:Pregnancy Trimesters; D037841:Pregnant People; D016079:Refusal to Treat / Q000941:ethics*; D013337:Students, Medical; D013338:Students, Nursing; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult