Male Involvement in Women’s Abortion Related Care: A Systematic Scoping Review

Joe Strong, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

The ICPD recognised the significance of men in the attainment of universal SRHR. Recent evidence in abortion research has suggested the role men can play in women’s abortion trajectories, but the extent of this involvement is unknown. This paper seeks to identify and synthesise the current evidence of male involvement in abortion. This systematic scoping is of peer-reviewed articles published between 01.01.2010-31.12.2018, in English, which relate to male involvement in women’s abortion trajectories. 34 studies met the inclusion criteria. Almost all studies used women as their primary sample. 20 studies were based solely or partially in Africa. Evidence suggested that men as partners and parents played a consistently significant role, e.g. through control of resources, finances, information services, in women’s abortion trajectories, particularly in women’s ability to access safe abortion services. Few studies have explored male perspectives of their roles or used representative samples.