Evaluating Information on Medication Abortion: Do Attitudes and State Policies Matter?

Abstract

The Food and Drug Administration proposed “patient medication information” inserts for all medications, including the abortion drug Mifepristone. It is unclear how abortion attitudes or state policies affect how people evaluate such communications. Participants (n = 311) were randomized to view variants of the Mifepristone insert. Linear regression was used to assess abortion attitudes’ and policies’ relationships with comprehension and perceived evidence strength, safety, and effectiveness. Interaction terms were constructed to assess moderation of those relationships. Abortion policies were unrelated to comprehension, perceived evidence strength, or perceived effectiveness, but abortion bans at or before 6 weeks were associated with lower perceived safety. Attitudes were not associated with comprehension, but participants with positive attitudes rated the evidence as stronger and the drug as safer. Abortion attitudes moderated the effect of randomized group on perceived safety. The informational inserts communicate well across abortion policy environments (except perceived safety where abortion is banned at or before 6 weeks), yet negative abortion attitudes affected perceptions of evidence strength and drug safety.