Personal and Professional Values: Relationships Between Social Workers’ Reproductive Health Knowledge, Attitudes, and Ethical Decision-Making
editMany social workers practice within organizations where sexual and reproductive health are relevant and important topics. However, there is currently a dearth of research investigating social workers’ attitudes about sexual health, and ethical decision- making concerning sharing reproductive knowledge and resources with their clients. This study surveyed MSW students (N = 443) to explore further how perceived abortion knowledge and anti-abortion attitudes are related to their perceptions of ethical decision-making around reproductive health. Results indicate students’ greater endorsements of anti-abortion attitudes are significantly associated with higher perceptions of reporting an inability to help clients who are considering reproductive health decisions with which they personally disagree. Conversely, students’ perceived abortion- related knowledge was not associated with their perceptions of ethical decision-making pertaining to reproductive health. The implications are discussed.