RESUMO
The purpose of the article is to analyze the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court's abortion decisions upon the policies of hospitals in Harris County (Houston), Texas. The study attempts to determine the variables associated with the hospitals' policies prior to and following the Roe and Doe decisions and which variables best explain the change (or lack of change) from the first period to the other. The principal data source is a series of in-depth personal interviews with 68 key decision-makers in 36 general hospitals in Harris county. Critical data about the hospitals' economic status were obtained from the American Hospital Association's Hospitals: Guide Issue, 1972. The major findings of the study are as follows: (1) the Roe and Doe decisions did affect hospital policy in that within a year after the High Court's rulings, hospitals evidence a dramatic shift toward more permissive abortion policies; (2) economic variables, while not having much explanatory power for pre-Roe and Doe abortion policies, were important predictors of hospital policy and of the propensity for hospitals to liberalize their abortion standards after the Supreme Court decisions; and (3) the values, attitudes, and attributes of the individual decision-makers had much to do with explaining their respective hospitals' abortion policies before and after the Supreme Court decisions and accounted for changes in abortion policy from the first to the second period.
PIP: An analysis of the impact of the Supreme Court abortion-related decisions, Roe and Doe, upon the policies of hospitals in Harris County, Texas, was made. The major data source was interviews conducted with 68 decision-makers in 36 general hospitals in the area. The effects of both economic and decision-making variables on predecision, postdecision policies and the change between the 2 was studied. It was evident that the decision did have an impact; within a year of the decisions, there had been a statistically significant shift toward more permissive abortion policies in the hospitals studied. The content of both Court decisions is summarized. None of the economic variables was associated with predecision policies. High staff-bed ratios and low occupancy rates were correlated with a hospital's propensity to liberalize abortion policy following the decisions. Values, attitudes, and attributes of individual decision-makers correlated with hospital abortion policies both pre- and postdecision. Religious identification, level of knowledge of the Court decisions, and patient care orientation correlated most strongly with predecision policy. These 3 variables plus opinions of the Court decisions correlated with postdecision policy. Opinion about the decisions and a positive attitude toward the Court related to the greatest changes in policies. The decision-making variables seem to have greater weight than the economic factors in the change of policy. The 2 sets of variables are not interrelated and must be studied separately. The study illustrates the influence of the Supreme Court in precipitating social change by removing legal barriers.
