Resources

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.

Facilitation guide
Module 1: Abortion basics

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Authors: Ipas
Year: 2018

Languages: English

Regions: Global

Countries: Global

Topics: Stigma