Abortion Stigma Webinar Series
Please join ANSIRH, Ipas and colleagues in a monthly discussion of abortion and stigma. Each month we will host a free, one-hour webinar conducted by global and domestic experts on HIV stigma, sexual stigma and abortion stigma.
The stigma surrounding abortion plays a critical role in the social, medical, and legal marginalization of abortion care around the world. Stigma shames and silences women seeking abortions and providers, and is a major contributor to unsafe and often lethal conditions for women. Though stigma is pervasive and threatens women, it is only just beginning to be well understood. Our speakers will provide frameworks for understanding stigma, a variety of tools for measuring stigma and innovative ideas for reducing stigma worldwide.
May 14, 2013:
Professor Greg Herek, psychologist at UC Davis, introduced his conceptualization of Sexual Stigma (stigma based on minority sexual orientation) and discussed how this conceptualization informs stigma measurement. He also explored the application of Contact Theory and described how contact between heterosexuals and sexual minority individuals is associated with reductions in sexual prejudice.
Download the presentation (note: large file, opens in new window)
April 9, 2013:
Patrick W. Corrigan, psychologist at Illinois Institute of Technology, presented his work on promising practices for reducing mental health stigma and his “Coming Out Proud” program. Special guest Renee Bracey-Sherman contributed her personal story of coming out about abortion.
March 12, 2013:
Kate Cockrill from ANSIRH presented her work on individual-level abortion stigma and findings from her recent study exploring how book clubs can help to reduce abortion stigma in the United States.
Download the presentation (note: large file, opens in new window)
February 12, 2013
Leila Hessini and Kristen Shellenberg from Ipas presented their conceptual model for stigma and provided an overview of their ongoing work on abortion stigma, including their recently developed scale to measure stigmatizing attitudes, beliefs and actions towards women who have an abortion.
Download the presentation (note: large file, opens in new window)
Download The Stigmatizing Attitudes, Beliefs and Actions Scale (SABAS)
June 11, 2013: Lisa Harris, MD, and colleagues from the University of Michigan will present their work on stigma and abortion providers in the United States. They will describe how providers experience and respond to stigma, and the similarities and differences between stigma experienced by patients and providers; discuss the political and legal consequences of negative stereotypes of abortion providers; and report on their use of the Providers Share Workshop to manage abortion-related stigma.
Below are resources created by Ipas and others that explore abortion stigma.
Ipas Resources
- Because Fall 2011
The stigma that often surrounds abortion and anyone associated with it—women, providers, pharmacists and advocates—contributes to abortion’s social, medical and legal marginalization. This issue of Because highlights some of Ipas’s work to understand the manifestations of abortion stigma and develop strategies to combat it.
- Because abortion stigma affects us all [VIDEO]
- Conceptualising abortion stigma
Abortion stigma is widely acknowledged in many countries, but poorly theorised. Although media accounts often evoke abortion stigma as a universal social fact, we suggest that the social production of abortion stigma is profoundly local. Abortion stigma is neither natural nor ‘essential’ and relies upon power ...
- Focus group guide for exploring abortion-related stigma
This guide is intended to help users better understand how stigma affects abortion-related work and what steps can be taken to mitigate it. It builds on a conceptual model of abortion-related stigma that discusses possible root causes of abortion-related stigma; ways in which it is perpetuated and normalized; and
- Correlates of perceived and internalized stigma among abortion patients in the USA: An exploration by race and Hispanic ethnicity
This study estimated the proportion of abortion patients in the USA reporting perceived and internalized stigma, and assessed associations between those outcomes and women’s sociodemographic, reproductive, and situational characteristics by race/ethnicity from a nationally representative dataset. Two-thirds of women ...
- Investigating social consequences of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion in Malawi: The role of stigma
Malawian women in all sectors of society are suffering from social implications of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion. Unwanted pregnancies occur among women who have limited access to family planning and safe abortion. A legally restrictive setting for safe abortion services leads many women to unsafe abortion, ...
- Social stigma and disclosure about induced abortion: Results from an exploratory study
It is well recognised that unsafe abortions have significant implications for women's physical health; however, women's perceptions and experiences with abortion-related stigma and disclosure about abortion are not well understood. This paper examines the presence and intensity of abortion stigma in five countries, ...
- Negative impacts of abortion criminalization in Brazil: Systematic denial of women's reproductive autonomy and human rights
- What Komen v. Planned Parenthood teaches us about abortion stigma
Two major women's health organizations, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood, battled for women's respect and donations. Two days later the dust is settling and we're left to wonder what we should take away from the tangle? Was it about fundraising? Women's health? Politics? I suggest it is about stigma, ...
- Legislating abortion stigma
- Abortion stigma is simply discrimination: Here is how we get rid of it
- Stigma, Shame, and Sexuality: A reflection on abortion
Other Resources
Purchase Required
- Abortion stigma: A reconceptualization of constituents, causes, and consequences / Norris, Alison; Bessett, Danielle; Steinberg, Julia R.; Kavanaugh, Megan L.; De Zordo, Silvia; Becker, Davida. Women’s Health Issues
- Confronting the challenge of unsafe second-trimester abortion / Harris, Lisa H.; Grossman, Daniel. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics
- Correlates of perceived and internalized stigma among abortion patients in the USA: An exploration by race and Hispanic ethnicity
Shellenberg, Kristen M., Amy O. Tsui. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 118 (Supp. 2): S152-S159.
- Dynamics of stigma in abortion work: Findings from a pilot study of the Providers Share Workshop / Harris, Lisa Hope; Debbink, Michelle; Martin, Lisa; Hassinger, Jane. Social Science and Medicine
- Social stigma and disclosure about induced abortion: Results from an exploratory study
Shellenberg, Kristen M., Ann M. Moore, Akinrinola Bankole, Fatima Juarez, Adekunbi Kehinde Omideyi, Nancy Palomino, Zeba Sathar, Susheela Singh and Amy O. Tsui. Global Public Health, 6 (Suppl. 1): S111-S125.
- Willing and unable: Doctors' constraints in abortion care / Freedman, Lori R. -- Nashville TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2010. [book]
- Abortion as a “solution”: reformulation of abortion stigma in the context of service introduction. Hodoglugil, N.S.; Gessessew, A.; Tsegay, Y.; Asier, S.; Holston, M.; Weinrib, R.; Prata, N. Contraception.
- Psychometric evaluation of a new measure of abortion stigma. Martin, L.; Debbink, M.; Hassinger, J.; Harris, L. Contraception. Sep2011, Vol. 84 Issue 3, p312-312. 1p.
- Rethinking the Mantra that Abortion Should be “Safe, Legal, and Rare”. Tracy A. Weitz. Journal of Women's History , Volume 22, Number 3, Fall 2010.
- Introducing abortion patients to a culture of support: A pilot study. Littman, Lisa L., Zarcadoolas, Christina, and Jacobs, Adam R. 2009. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 12 (6): 419-431.