SPOTLIGHT ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH & JUSTICE
Beyond Stigma: Centering Dignity, Freedom, and Choice in Reproductive Health
Written by Donya Admadian, MS, MPH, 蘑菇视频 Legislative Affairs Director
and Taylor Spears, MD, 蘑菇视频 Reproductive Health Project Fellow
She could be your classmate sitting silently beside you in lecture, quietly calculating how many miles exist between her and the nearest clinic. All the while, lawmakers who will never even know her name debate her humanity from hundreds of miles away.
She could be your future patient-navigating fear, uncertainty, and isolation beneath the fluorescent lights of an emergency room. Your sibling. Your colleague. Considering that 1 in 4 women in the U.S. have an abortion by age 45, the chances of these people being near and dear to you are extremely high (ACOG, Abortion care 2022).
Abortion care in the 21st century continues to be discussed as abstraction before humanity- as politics before personhood.
From early in our medical careers, we are both directly and indirectly trained to stigmatize reproductive healthcare- through silence in our curricula and clinical rotations, through euphemisms that distance us from patients, through legislation that has no evidence-based foundation, and through institutional cultures that frame reproductive healthcare and abortion as controversial rather than deeply human forms of care.
When care is treated as controversial, we inevitably create systems in which institutional judgment becomes the frame of reference through which patients are taught to understand themselves. People seeking abortion care are already forced to navigate tangible barriers- financial strain, geographic restriction, delayed access, legislative interference- yet layered atop these obstacles for many patients is an often unspoken psychological burden shaped by shame, fear, isolation, and the possibility of public scrutiny. According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, abortion does not increase the risk of depression (ACOG, Abortion care 2022). The UC San Francisco鈥檚 landmark found that
鈥渕ore than 95 percent of people who chose to have abortions reported that it was the right decision for them, when interviewed over the next five years.鈥�
Given the stigma and the supposed 鈥済uilt鈥� surrounding care, these facts alone corrects major misconceptions about the psychological toll of abortion care.
It is critical to recognize that no two abortion experiences are identical, nor should distress be presumed as universal. And yet, what remains undeniably true is that nearly every patient seeking comprehensive reproductive healthcare must navigate anxieties and barriers produced by a society that has politicized bodily autonomy beyond recognition. We witness the fear of traveling hundreds of miles for care, the silence imposed by potential criminalization, the uncertainty of whether compassion will be met with judgment, and the quiet internalization of rhetoric that frames deeply personal healthcare decisions as a moral referendum rather than a human reality.
In this way, stigma itself becomes a public health issue and crisis- not only shaping access to care, but shaping the emotional conditions under which people are forced to survive, decide, and seek the care they deserve. Abortion care is healthcare because choice, freedom, autonomy and dignity are human rights– much like access to clean water, food, shelter and safety. Abortion care is safe and is at least 14 times safer than childbirth. Some studies have estimated that a complete abortion ban would increase maternal mortality by 21% (ACOG, Increasing access to abortion 2025).
As future physicians and advocates, it is our moral duty and profound privilege to recognize that the consequences of our public discourse surrounding abortion care demands our attention. Increasing our understanding of the roots of abortion care stigma, and shining a light on its destructive impact on patients, providers, and communities are vital steps to ensuring all can access the care they need; and in achieving reproductive justice for all. Our collective language regarding reproductive care has the power to shape not only policy but to restore and invite liberation, dignity, non-judgement and compassion back into our medical practices.
So, let us be reminded that healthcare rooted in empathy and evidence-based care is not radical-
but the very foundation upon which medicine itself is meant to stand.
Watch & Share
What is abortion stigma? (4.33min)
The Sea Change Program & the Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Resources:
Abortion care. ACOG. (2022).
Increasing access to abortion. ACOG. (2025, January 16).
Into ACT!ON content library. Into Action Content Library. (n.d.).
Reproductive Health Care is a Human Right
Abortion Is Health Care
UCSF Turnaway Study Shows Impact of Abortion Access on Well-Being.
NIRH Action Fund.
Note: This post was originally written for the 蘑菇视频 Reproductive Health Project eNews #71 鈥� May 23, 2026:
Getting Beyond Stigma, Centering Dignity, Combatting Mis-&-Dis Information.
Read & Share the full issue HERE
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