The Abortion Counseling Experience

Almost half of women in the United States have at least one abortion by age forty-five. These procedures most often occur in outpatient settings, where counseling is mandated by state law. Preprocedure abortion counseling is often modeled on a feminist counseling philosophy. Research on the effectiveness of feminist preprocedure abortion counseling is virtually nonexistent. This paper explores the narratives of 104 abortion patients who responded to an open-ended question on a counseling satisfaction survey. Patients’ narratives of their counseling experiences are analyzed and best practice recommendations are offered.