Title: Attitudes towards induced abortion among gynecologists in Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Version: 0 Date: 24 Jul 2023
Reviewer's report:
dear authors,
important note: please, any sociopolitical opinion of the authors ( as it, With much regret, is
obvious in the current study ) or others should not be reflected in the written manuscript. The
aims of the medical researches should be and should remain humanitarian regardless of any
social and political points of view
1. the title should be changed to (Attitudes towards induced abortion among gynecologists in
Kurdistan region of Iraq)
2. abstract:
- the times and duration of the study should be included within the method.
3. Introduction:
- use the word (introduction) instead of background
- change the following words (yet countries to some countries), (Evidence shows to evidences
show),  (only leads  to leads)
- remove the political and non-medical opinions
- use passive verbs and needs grammar review
- change the words (abortion to induced abortion) throughout the manuscript
- regarding the paragraph of reference (6), is this percentage of all types of abortions even those
with medical reasons, or only of induced and illegal abortions, please explain.
- what are the references of the last 2 paragraph
- what is the knowledge gap that you want to cover in the current manuscript
- the aim of the study: replace the word region with (Kurdistan region of Iraq)
4. method of the study:
a. Design and setting of the study
-  how the questionnaires were validated?
- sent the form of the used questionnaires
- remove the paragraph of the geographic informations of the area of the study.
- move the last paragraph to the introduction
b. Study participants
- why the current study did not include midwives and pharmacists who have important
contributions to induced abortion?
- why you did not study the attitude difference between rural and urban areas?
5. results:
- the means should be written as mean +- SD
-  use bold front in the title of figures and table
- change the title of Table 1 to (The sociodemographic factors of the study population), (N=171)
should be within the table
a. the paragraph (attitude)
-  use pat verbs
- change the word (half to nearly half)
- explain the following sentence (a woman has the right to determine the best course for the life
of her fetus depending on the circumstances of conception)
b. Encounterments in daily work
- Write an isolated table or figure about the type and percentage of complications of induced
abortion encountered by the participants
- Write more details about Figure 2
c. Legalization of abortion in the Kurdistan region
- the sum of the percentages in this paragraph is not 100%, where are the remaining percentages
of the mentioned results, please explain
- Add the word (participants) to the demographic features
- explain the following sentence (Age groups, marital status, and years of practice all differed
statistically significantly) regarding how they are different or the difference between what?
- the N in the title and within table 2 equals 166 and not 171 which is the number of participants,
why?
- What is the type of statistical test in Table 2? When the p-value is significant in this table?
6. discussion:
-  explain the following sentence with medical terms ( more liberal views on abortion)
- you mention a study from Guatemala. Are there similar studies from the middle east region?
It is preferred to be included in the  indicated paragraph
- What does (severe eclampsia with fetal death ) mean? Is it mean induced abortion as a treatment
for severe eclampsia?
- mention the study of the following sentence (Similarly, obstetricians/gynecologists in the
age range of 40 to 49 were twice as likely to approve of such abortions compared to older
obstetricians/gynecologists)
- regarding the following sentence (25% believe abortion is unacceptable in all situations,
indicating contradiction):
1. Did you explain to the participants that (all situations) mean even when the mother's life is
in danger?
2. Did the law obligate that induced abortion is not allowed even if the mother law is in danger?
3.  replace the word (contradiction) with a more benign one
- regarding the words (conservative attitudes) of the paragraph of reference  18.19
1. Why it was not because they are physicians and their jobs are to save lives,?
2. or because induced abortion is still illegal in their region and they do not want to be a part
of illegal procedures?
- the paragraph next to the paragraph indicated with reference 18,19:
1. what is the reference of the indicated paragraph
2. regarding the last three lines of the indicated paragraph. Remove or modified.
The current study is medical research, all the medical problems should be discussed from a
medical point of view, not from a sociopolitical point of view. If there is a social problem causing
a medical issue, you should give the medical reasons to solve it, not the social reason. Although
physicians are part of their society, they should not allow their sociopolitical attitudes to affect
their jobs. In other words, if the physician is with or against induced abortion, only the scientific
medical opinion and laws should direct their thoughts in dealing with it or its complications.
- use passive verbs throughout the discussion
-  regarding the last 2 lines of the discussion:
1. what does (a negative attitude) mean, explain, please
2. why you considered it as negative?
7. Methodological considerations:
-  remove the following sentence (and that engagement in research is generally lower in those
areas). medical researchers should not be judgmental  or use unacceptable words against persons,
regions,  ethnic, religious, on any other type of social human groups
8. references:
- use updated references
- remove any non-medical references