ABSTRACT
The Ethical Principles of the International Federation of Social Workers include self-determination, a basic value of the profession. Ambivalent social workers can help model dealing with ambivalence and making decisions in situations of uncertainty. If abortion is only a topic of interest, but not at the center of one’s concerns, then the most basic recommended action for ambivalent workers is to choose a field of service in which this kind of conflict is likely to be rare. The commonly held view that abortion should be allowed for cases of incest and rape is not consistent with the belief that abortion is murder of an innocent human. As social workers have long recognized, the personal is social and the social is personal. Modifiable social factors that are associated with abortions include poverty, male unemployment, ignorance, the availability of contraception and health insurance to cover it, and the availability of abortion providers.
