Medical and midwifery students’ views on the use of conscientious objection in abortion care, following legal reform in Chile: a cross-sectional study

Table 2 Proportion of students who agree/strongly agree with statements about conscientious objection (CO), by university type (N = 333)

	Total %	University type, %
	Total %	Religious	Secular
Clinicians who conscientiously object should:
Counsel patients with unwanted pregnancies on all their treatment options, including abortion	92	75	97*
Refer patients eligible for a lawful abortion to a willing clinician	91	76	95*
Be allowed to refuse to provide post-abortion care	18	25	17
I would use CO to avoid caring for a woman:
who wanted an abortion, no matter what her reasons	18	38	12*
who wanted a lawful abortion	18	39	12*
with post-abortion complications	6	10	5
The following CO regulations should be implemented in Chile:
Universities and other institutions should be able to register as COs	27	52	20*
Mandatory public registration of COs	67	64	68
The following health professionals should be able to be COs:
Physicians	83	97	79*
Midwives	79	96	75*
Nurses	62	80	56*
Pharmacists	32	55	26*
Administrators	23	38	19*
Nobody should be able to conscientiously object	16	3	20*

* Differences between students attending religious and secular universities are statistically significant (p < .05)

ISSN: 1472-6939