Abortion stigma

An international team of researchers is linking abortion stigma to better healthcare for women, but they state the subject is currently under researched. Not only that it’s considerations have been largely limited to women who’ve had abortions. They are embarking on a new effort to explore abortion experience by different groups at different times.

The team is represented by The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health; the University of Cincinnati Department of Sociology; the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Psychiatry; the Guttmacher Institute in New York; Goldsmiths College, University of London; and Center for the Study of Women, University of California, Los Angeles.

“There is very little research on abortion stigma, and what does exist has focused on women who have had abortions and on those experiences. We’re looking at stigma in a broader context,” explains research team member Danielle Bessett, assistant professor of sociology, University of Cincinnati.

Each researcher will focus on a specific group that could be affected by stigma. Those groups will include health care providers that perform abortions, supporters of women who have had them, the male partner of the woman who may or not be the father. They also want to look at how women approached subsequent pregnancies and motherhood. Researchers are also considering a contrast and comparison between women who have abortions and women who experience miscarriage.

“Understanding abortion stigma will inform strategies to reduce it [the stigma not the occurrences of abortion], which has direct implications for improving access to care and better health for those whom stigma affects, “state the author in the invited paper published in Women’s Heath Issues.

Source: University of Cincinnati, Medical News Today