79 women were randomly assigned to conditions in which they received pregnancy counseling including abortion information or excluding abortion information (with or without a reminder of the "gag rule"). Subjects not given abortion information viewed their caregivers as more biased, less competent, less empathetic, and holding anti-abortion views compared to those receiving such information. Those not given abortion information but reminded of the "gag rule" viewed their caregivers with relative dislike and mistrust.
PIP: Before the lifting of the Title X gag rule in 1993, health caregivers from federally funded clinics were prohibited from providing abortion information to clients. In February 1992, 79 undergraduate women in business classes at the University of Connecticut were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (age range 18 to 29 years, M= 19.4 yrs, SD=2.1). Subjects read a written scenario, imagining they were pregnant and receiving information from a nurse at a health clinic. In the first condition, the nurse described all pregnancy options, including abortion (n=26). In the second condition, information on abortion was omitted (n=27). In the third condition, information on abortion was omitted and attributed to the gag rule (n=26). Subjects rated their attitudes toward abortion and the health caregiver on 7-point agree-disagree scales. Reliable composite scales measured attitudes toward the health caregiver in terms of credibility, perceived views on abortion, and empathy. Subjects held pro-abortion views, and the conservative Scheffe multiple-comparison test on one-way analyses was employed. Subjects in both groups for whom information on abortion was omitted viewed the healthcare provider as less credible than the group given information (p .01); however, the effect of the gag rule reminder was to reduce the likability and trustworthiness of the health caregiver (p .01). The group without information on abortion was more likely to infer the healthcare provider held anti-abortion views, but the gag rule reminder mediated this perception (p .01). Subjects from whom information on abortion was withheld perceived their health caregivers as less empathetic to their situation than the fully informed group (p .01). These findings suggest that women who are pro-abortion and who do not receive information on abortion during pregnancy counseling may view their health caregivers as incompetent or biased. The Title X gag rule may have adversely affected the quality of patient-caregiver relationships.