What is
Abortion Stigma?
In the limited research there is on abortion stigma, there is a working definition on abortion stigma.
Abortion stigma:
A negative attribute ascribed to women who seek to terminate a pregnancy that marks them, internally or externally, as inferior to ideals of womanhood
IDEALS OF WOMANHOOD: THE EXPECTATIONS OF A WOMAN. WHO IS A WOMAN? WHAT IS A WOMAN’S VALUE IN SOCIETY? What are the pressures that a woman experiences?
Yet, abortion stigma can have negative mental health outcomes (Major et al., 2009).
Abortion stigma can have harmful, and sometimes fatal, physical and psychological consequences (O’Donnell et al., 2018).
The 3 Domains of Stigma
There is perceived or felt abortion stigma, experienced or enacted abortion stigma, and internalized abortion stigma or self-stigma.
Perceived: read definition. This also includes what an individual think may happen to them if others found out about their abortion (Shellenberg et al., 2011).
Experienced: This can happen in multiple settings like in the home, community, healthcare settings like the doctor’s office, or in society at large.
Internalized: Internalized abortion stigma can lead to shame and secrecy by forcing individuals into being silenced. All aspects of abortion stigma is harmful but self-stigma can be truly insidious because an individual can take the negative stereotypes of “the type of person who gets an abortion” and accept them as true. This is usually done in silence and they carry the burden of stigma in silence, something that was not theirs in the first place.
Ecological Model of Abortion
The Ecological Model of Abortion is a framework helps us identify abortion stigma on all societal and systemic levels. This framework proves that abortion stigma is linked with other forms of oppression such as sexism, racism, and socioeconomic inequality, and intersects with both stereotyping and prejudice.
Framing Discourses / Mass Media and Culture
The 1st outermost level is the language that shapes public opinion and where certain strategies are disseminated which control the dominant discourse surrounding abortion, and how much visibility or invisibility abortion and abortion stigma are given in popular culture.
Governmental / Structural / Legal
The 2nd level consists of macro societal structures. Many of the United States’ laws and policies, especially on the state level, bolster and support abortion stigma in society’s core structures. Abortion stigma and gender discrimination can be perpetuated and cemented in policy and law, and is pervasive on a global scale.
Organizational / Institutional
The 3rd level of organizational and institutional influences outside of government may also perpetuate and create abortion stigma through their structure, policies, and norms.
This includes health facilities and medical education organizations.
Abortion stigma is perpetuated by abortion care being mostly segregated and seen as separate from other medical or reproductive care.
In medical school,
<27%
OBGYN residency programs in the U.S. require first-trimester abortion training
Community
Within the 4th level of smaller or localized communities, abortion stigma is related to status loss for the individual who seeks an abortion.
This can be highly dangerous if an individual’s access to financial resources or mobility is limited with their community.
Individual
At the 5th level of the individual, this is the individual’s personal experience of abortion stigma, including perceived, experienced, and internalized abortion stigma.
This includes the relationships between deciding to disclose one’s abortion, or maintaining secrecy.
Make it stand out.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Make it stand out.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
