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Resistance and vulnerability to stigmatization in abortion work

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  • O’Donnell, Jenny
  • Weitz, Tracy A.
  • Freedman, Lori R.

Abstract

The stigma surrounding abortion in the United States commonly permeates the experience of both those seeking this health service as well as those engaged in its provision. Annually there are approximately 1.2 million abortions performed in the United States; despite that existing research shows that abortion services are highly utilized, women rarely disclose their use of these services. In 2005 only 1787 facilities that offer abortion services remained, a drop of almost 40 percent since 1982 (Jones, Zolna, Henshaw, & Finer, 2008). While it has been acknowledged that all professionals working in abortion are labeled to some degree as different, no published research has explored stigmatization as a process experienced by the range of individuals that comprise the abortion-providing workforce in the USA. Using qualitative data from a group of healthcare professionals doing abortion work in a Western state, this study begins to fill that gap, providing evidence of how the experience of stigma can vary and is managed within interactions in the workplace, in professional circles, among family and friends, and among strangers. The analysis shows that the experience of stigma for those providing abortion care is not a static or fixed loss of status. It is a dynamic situation in which those vulnerable to stigmatization can avoid, resist, or transform the stigma that would attach to them by varying degrees within selective contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • O’Donnell, Jenny & Weitz, Tracy A. & Freedman, Lori R., 2011. "Resistance and vulnerability to stigmatization in abortion work," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(9), pages 1357-1364.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:73:y:2011:i:9:p:1357-1364
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.08.019
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Frederick, Angela, 2017. "Visibility, respectability, and disengagement: The everyday resistance of mothers with disabilities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 131-138.
    2. Bove, Liliana L. & Pervan, Simon J., 2013. "Stigmatized labour: An overlooked service worker’s stress," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 259-263.
    3. Miner, Skye A., 2019. "Demarcating the dirty work: Canadian Fertility professionals’ use of boundary-work in contentious egg donation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 19-26.
    4. Mills, Lisa & Watermeyer, Jennifer, 2023. "A meta-ethnography on the experience and psychosocial implications of providing abortion care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    5. Izugbara, Chimaraoke O. & Egesa, Carolyne & Okelo, Rispah, 2015. "‘High profile health facilities can add to your trouble’: Women, stigma and un/safe abortion in Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 9-18.
    6. Bergen, Sadie, 2022. "“The kind of doctor who doesn't believe doctor knows best”: Doctors for Choice and the medical voice in Irish abortion politics, 2002–2018," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    7. Beynon-Jones, Siân M., 2013. "‘We view that as contraceptive failure’: Containing the ‘multiplicity’ of contraception and abortion within Scottish reproductive healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 105-112.
    8. Suh, Siri, 2014. "Rewriting abortion: Deploying medical records in jurisdictional negotiation over a forbidden practice in Senegal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 20-33.
    9. Martin, Lisa A. & Hassinger, Jane A. & Debbink, Michelle & Harris, Lisa H., 2017. "Dangertalk: Voices of abortion providers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 75-83.

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