Anesthetic Perspectives and Practices Toward Procedural Abortion: A Survey of SOAP Members
Markley JC1,2, Butwick AJ1, Lee A3, Wood C4, Gambling DR5, White RS6, Traynor AJ7
1UCSF, 2ZSFG, 3UPenn, 4UColorado, 5Kaiser San Diego, 6Cornell-NYP, 7OHSU
•Background & Hypothesis
•Anesthesia professionals provide anesthesia for procedural abortion.1,2
•Little is known about the extent to which anesthesia professionals participate in abortion-related care or their reasons for non-participation.3-6
•Hypothesis: There is a variation in practice patterns among SOAP members toward the provision of care for procedural abortion.
•Understanding current practice and perspectives should help guide:
•Educational programing
•Research
•Patient care
References
1. O’Connell et al. Contraception. 2008; 78:492 | 2. White et al. Contraception. 2018; 98:95 | 3. Reeves et al. Int J Obstet Anesth. 2022; 49:103239
4. Reeves et al. Contraception, 2023; 124:110058 | 5. Koganti et al. Anesthesiology, 2024; 141:849 | 6. Van Norman et al. Anesthesiol Clin. 2024; 42:539
Study Design and Methods
•IRB-approved, SOAP-sponsored, anonymous web-based cross-sectional survey (Qualtrics) study, April/May 2025
•Primary aim: Determine the attitudes and perspectives of SOAP members related to their anesthesia practices for various abortion and abortion-related procedures.
•Inclusion criteria: SOAP member, anesthesiologist/CRNA/AA, completed training, currently practicing anesthesia, primarily practicing in the US.
•Procedures evaluated:
•Procedural abortion: D&C, D&E, etc.
•Not included in the definition of procedural abortion: medication abortion, ectopic, IUFD, miscarriage, pre-viable PPROM
•Also: ectopic pregnancy, labor epidural analgesia for induction termination, anesthesia for feticidal injection, anesthesia for complications of abortions such as post-abortion hemorrhage and sepsis
•Secondary aim: Evaluate reasons for non-participation.
Results
•The survey response rate was 19% (159/856)
Conclusion and Discussion
•Despite a low survey response rate, we observed that most respondents participated in procedural abortion and many abortion-related procedures.
•Concern about legal liability was not a prominent reason for not participating in anesthesia care for abortion related procedures.
•These findings can inform targeted education initiatives, workforce planning, and institutional guidance to ensure safe, equitable access to anesthesia care for abortion and abortion-related interventions.
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