Antichoice attitudes to abortion in women presenting for medical abortions.

OBJECTIVE: To examine attitudes of women presenting for elective abortions. METHOD: Women presenting for elective abortion induced with medication at an urban free-standing abortion clinic were given semistructured interviews about their attitudes to abortion. RESULTS: Of the 60 women interviewed, 26 voiced antichoice attitudes. These interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes. The women with antichoice attitudes were similar to the women with prochoice attitudes in age, education, and religion but were less likely to be white (61.8% of prochoice women identified themselves as white, compared with 30.8% of antichoice women, P = 0.02). The antichoice women felt most strongly that other women should not be allowed to have an abortion if they gave as their reason, "want no more children," "not married," or "cannot afford." The most common themes were that one needed "enough" reasons to have an abortion and that women should take better precautions to prevent conception. CONCLUSION: It is important for abortion clinic staff to realize that many women coming to an abortion clinic have antichoice views. These views may affect a woman's ability to recover emotionally after the procedure and will therefore have implications for the kind of supportive care women need both before and after the abortion.

Serum stimulates growth of and proteinase secretion by Aspergillus fumigatus.

Serum contains iron-binding proteins, which inhibit the growth of most pathogenic microorganisms, including fungi. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of serum on growth of the opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. Supplementing minimal essential medium (MEM) with up to 80% human serum or up to 80% fetal bovine serum (FBS) stimulated growth and increased the amount of A. fumigatus dry biomass approximately fourfold. In addition, a 100-fold increase in proteinase secretion, as measured by azocasein hydrolysis, was observed when 10% human serum or 10% FBS was added to MEM. The fungal proteinases secreted in serum-containing media were shown to degrade (3)H-labeled basal lamina proteins. The factor in serum that stimulated proteinase secretion was larger than 10 kDa and was 85% inactivated when the serum was heated for 30 min at 66 degrees C. The proportions of proteinases of each catalytic class secreted by A. fumigatus in the presence of serum were different from the proportions secreted in media containing single proteins. Proteinase secretion did not result from increased protein concentration in the medium per se because bovine serum albumin (BSA) at a concentration equivalent to the concentration of serum produced only 20% of the proteinase activity per milligram (dry weight) that was produced by FBS. Addition of BSA plus 100 microM FeCl(3) to MEM resulted in the same level of growth as addition of serum, indicating that a combination of nutritional factors in serum may stimulate growth. However, the level of proteinase secretion was still only 30% of the level observed with FBS. These data indicate that serum does not inhibit the growth of A. fumigatus and that the nutrients in serum result in high levels of proteinase secretion, potentially increasing the invasiveness of this species.