Table 1

Characteristics of the primary papers included in this review

Reference/country	Quality	Data collection method	Sample size	Participants	Focus of study	Perspective
Mixed method article
Weiebe and Sandhu53 Canada	Good	Survey and interviews	n=402 Interviews n=39 Convenience	Women accessing abortion clinics	Barriers to access abortion	W
Qualitative articles
Harvey et al.62 USA	Good	Focus groups	n=73 3 groups	Women from family planning clinics	Medical abortion knowledge	W
Bessett et al.55 USA	Low	Interviews	n=39	Women eligible for subsidised insurance	Barriers to obtaining funds; impact on timely abortion	W
Dennis and Blanchard54 USA	High	Interviews	n=68	Providers from 15 states with restrictive Medicaid funding	Evaluate Medicaid abortion policies	P
Dressler et al.35 Canada	Good	Interviews	n=20	Rural and urban physician abortion providers	Experiences of rural and urban physician abortion providers	P
Grindlay et al.59 USA	High	Interviews	n=25	Staff and users of Planned Parenthood clinics	Acceptability of telemedicine for medical abortion	W and P
Nordberg et al.39 Norway	Low	Interviews	n=7	Christian GPs	Conscientious objection to abortion referrals	P
Quantitative articles
Henshaw56 USA	High	Survey	n=1525	Non-hospital abortion providers	Factors hindering access to abortion service	P
Rosenblatt et al.31 USA	Poor	Survey	n=138	Physicians, specialists	Attitudes and practices	P
Ferris et al.65 Canada	Good	Survey	n=301	Health professionals from provider and non-provider hospitals	Variations in availability and distribution of abortion services	P
Hammarstedt et al.32 Sweden	Good	Survey	n=444	Midwives and gynaecologists	Views on legal abortion	P
Rosenblattt et al.42 USA	Poor	Survey	n=219	University medical students	Attitudes towards abortion	PP
Francome and Freeman33 UK	High	Survey	n=702	GPs from British Medical Association	Attitudes towards abortion	P
Henshaw and Finer2 USA	High	Survey	n=1819 facilities	Non-hospital abortion providers	Delivery of services and number performed	P
Moreau et al.36 France	High	Interviews	n=480	Population based	Patterns of care	W
Shotorbani et al.41 USA	Good	Survey	n=312	Health science students	Intention to provide abortion services	PP
Kade et al.34 USA	Poor	Survey and interviews	n=20	Physicians and nurse managers	Nurse attitudes to abortion	P
Hwang et al.43 USA	High	Survey	n=1176	Licensed advanced practitioners	Intention to provide abortion services	PP
Schwarz et al.44 USA	Low	Survey	n=212	Medical residents in training	Willingness to provide medical abortion	PP
Nickson et al.50 Australia	Good	Survey	n=1244	Women from 8 major abortion providers	Extent and cost of travel	W
Sethna and Doull37 Canada	Good	Survey	n=1022	Women who accessed private clinic	Cost, distance, experiences	W
Gleeson et al.46 UK	Low	Survey	n=300	Medical students	Attitudes towards abortion	PP
Shochet and Trussell58 USA	High	Interviews	n=208	Women who accessed private clinics	Method selection, provider preference	W
Steele45 Northern Ireland and Norway	Low	Survey	n=145	Medical students	Comparison of attitudes	PP
Jones and Kooistra52 USA	High	Survey	n=2344 facilities	Current and potential providers facilities	Incidence and access to service	P
Godfrey et al.57 USA	Good	Survey	n=299	Women attending 2 abortion clinics	Factors influencing women's choice	W
Frank38 USA	Poor	Survey	n=154	Family medicine, physician residents, faculty	Conscientious refusal	P
Grossman et al.61 USA	High	Survey	n=578	Women seeking medical abortion from 6 clinics	Acceptability of telemedicine compared with face-to-face service provision	W
Hagen et al.48 Norway	Low	Survey	n=514	Medical students	Attitudes towards abortion	PP
Page et al.11 USA	Good	Survey	n=102	Women attending community health clinic	Attitudes to medical abortion	W
Rasinski et al.40 USA	Good	Survey	n=1154	Obstetricians, gynaecologists, physicians	Conscientious refusal	P
Strickland47 UK	Poor	Survey	n=733	Medical students	Conscientious objection	PP
Norman et al.63 Canada	Good	Surveys and interviews	n=39	Rural and urban abortion providers	Distribution, practice and experiences	P
Review of secondary data sources
Dobie et al.64 USA	High	Population data and abortion reports	Compared decade	NA	Comparison of availability and outcomes of abortion services	W and P
Nickson et al.51 Australia	Good	Health data	Women who claimed Medicare	NA	Use of interstate abortion service	W
Silva and McNeill49 New Zealand	Good	Population data and abortion service	Regional councils n=16	NA	Geographic access	W
Yunzal-Butler et al.67 USA	High	Population health data	n=667 633 procedures	NA	Trends in medical abortion	W and P
Grossman et al.60 USA	High	Abortion clinic data	n=17 956 encounters	NA	Compared telemedicine model to service delivery in clinics	W and P

GP, general practitioner; NA, not applicable; P, provider, PP, potential provider; W, woman.