Abortion stigma ends here: A toolkit for understanding and action
Abortion stigma plays a critical role in the social, medical and legal marginalization of abortion care around the world—and it leads to negative health outcomes for women, girls, trans people and our communities. It drives the high number of preventable deaths and injuries around the world due to unsafe abortion.
Ipas offers this toolkit to address and help mitigate abortion stigma. It is designed to help community members, community health workers, activists and staff of community-based organizations and others address abortion stigma in various settings and contexts. The toolkit activities are clustered into thematic modules, but facilitators can also develop their own workshop agenda by picking activities that suit the goals of the gathering, the participants’ needs, the facilitators’ skill level and the time available. We have also created a CORE agenda—comprising exercises from each module—for those who want a pre-set agenda covering a range of activities.
In this toolkit
Download the complete publication here or individual modules below.
Introduction
Facilitation guide
Module 1: Abortion basics
1A: Reasons Why VCAT (Values Clarification and Attitude Transformation) activity
1B CORE: Why did she die? VCAT activity
1C: Myths and misconceptions
Module 2: What is abortion stigma? Learning to recognize abortion stigma around us
2A: What is my own experience of stigma?
2B: What is my abortion comfort level? VCAT activity
2C CORE: Using pictures to recognize abortion stigma
2D: Using proverbs to understand abortion stigma
Module 3: Where does abortion stigma come from? Exploring our beliefs and their roots
3A: Religion and abortion: Cross the line VCAT activity
3B: Language and stigma: Things people say
3C CORE: Cultural beliefs and practices: Keep the best, change the rest!
3D: When religion is weaponized to fuel abortion stigma
Module 4: Standing in each other’s shoes: How we are all affected by abortion stigma
4A: Humanizing our abortion stories
4B: What would you do? VCAT activity
4C CORE: Secrecy, silence and stigma
4D: Men’s experiences of abortion stigma
Module 5: Intersectionality: When abortion stigma and other stigmas join forces
5A: Linking stigma based on multiple identities
5B CORE: The Last Abortion VCAT activity
5C Part 1: Exploring gender roles
5C Part 2: Commended or criticized?
5D: A no-win situation for young women
5E: Combatting stigma at the intersection of LGBTIQ and abortion rights
Module 6: Abortion stigma in health care and the law
6A: Who teaches us about sex and sexual health?
6B CORE: The most stigmatizing health facility in the world
6C: Finding abortion stigma in health facilities
6D: Unsafe abortions and abortion stigma
6E CORE: Abortion stigma and the law
Module 7: Actions to end abortion stigma
7A CORE: Speaking out and taking action
7B: A world without abortion stigma
7C: Lessons from other movements
7D: Ideas for action: Reframing abortion, thinking big!
7E: How to respond to stigma in the media