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The objective was to investigate the effect of mandated abortion counseling requirements intended to dissuade women from having abortions on patients' individual-level abortion stigma.

We randomized women presenting for abortion to complete a demographic survey and the validated Individual Level Abortion Stigma (ILAS) scale either before (unexposed) or after (exposed) hearing the mandatory Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act counseling via a standardized video. A sample size of 46 (23 per group) allowed us to detect a 1-standard-deviation difference in mean ILAS score between the groups. The ILAS scale ranges from 0 to 3.5, with higher scores indicating greater stigma.

From November 2015 to April 2016, 46 participants completed the study. All baseline characteristics were balanced except that the unexposed group had a greater proportion of low-income participants. The …