Abortion Stigma: What Can We Learn from a Comparison to Miscarriage Stigma?

• In Event: 308 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 12. Medical/Mental and Physical Health: Session II

Abstract

The emergent interdisciplinary literature on abortion stigma documents its power to shape the social lives of those implicated by it, but does not compare women’s experiences of abortion with those of other stigmatized reproductive processes. Drawing on surveys with over 300 women in Boston and Cincinnati, this paper juxtaposes women’s perceptions of abortion stigma and miscarriage stigma. Our analysis allows us to understand the characteristics of women uniquely associated with perceptions of abortion stigma by assessing them in relation to another pregnancy outcome. We find that white, non-Hispanic women were consistently and significantly overrepresented amongst the group of women exhibiting higher differential stigma, meaning that they were more likely to perceive abortion as being stigmatized relative to miscarriage. Reporting a past abortion was significantly associated with being in the low differential stigma category. These results suggest that abortion stigma does not merely reflect generalized attitudes toward non-normative pregnancy outcomes, but rather that it is a distinct cultural phenomenon which certain groups perceive as more salient and to which they may be more vulnerable.

Authors

• Danielle Bessett, University of Cincinnati

• Aalap Bommaraju, University of Cincinnati

• Megan Kavanaugh, Guttmacher Institute

• Melody Hou, University of California-Davis