Resumo

MONTESINOS-SEGURA, Reneé et al. Opinion of medical students about the legalization of abortion after rape, and its associated factors. Peru, 2015. Acta méd. Peru [online]. 2016, vol.33, n.4, pp.267-274. ISSN 1728-5917.

Objective: To describe the opinion of Peruvian medical students about the legalization of abortion in cases of rape, and to address its associated factors. Material and Methods: An observational, cross-sectional and analytical study was performed in medical students who attended any of the two national student assemblies that took place in the city of Trujillo during 2015. A 25-question survey was administered, which included socio-demographic variables and information regarding the students’ opinion about abortion legalization. Factors associated with favoring abortion legalization in cases of rape were assessed using Poisson regression with robust variance, obtaining prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: We surveyed 142 medical students. Fifty-three and a half per cent were women, 62.7% were studying in universities outside Lima and 44.0 % were between fifth and eighth semester. Fifty-seven and a half percent of the students agreed with legalizing abortion in cases of rape, which was associated with religious commitment (PR = 0.50, 95% CI = 0.30-0.84) and with the approval of such legalization by their relatives (PR = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.08 to 1.80). Conclusions: Half of the participants agreed that abortion should be legalized in cases of rape. This was associated with having a more relaxed religious commitment and with the approval of abortion legalization by their relatives, which highlights the importance of the family and religious environment in this issue

Palavras-chave : Abortion, induced; Rape; Students, medical.