The Open University

Still a stigma: Abortion 50 years on

Posted on 27 October 2017 • Health

Fifty years on from from the 1967 Abortion Act, OU academic and researcher in abortion policy, politics and teenage pregnancy, Dr Lesley Hoggart, examines why there is still a stigma attached to women who have more than one abortion.

Dr. Hoggart, director of Research at the OU’s School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

Challenging the stigma associated with abortions

“It’s been 50 years since the Abortion Act 1967 was passed, but women who have an abortion can still feel stigmatised. Despite the fact that most women will have over three decades of fertility to manage, and that no contraception is 100 per cent effective, our research has shown that some women feel stigmatised, and that women who have more than one abortion are likely to experience much more abortion stigma than those who do not.

Abortion stigma is based on a view that abortion is wrong in some way and that women who have an abortion are deviating from ideals of motherhood, they are doing something ‘unnatural’.

This stigma helps to explain a range of negative aspects of some women’s abortion experiences, and why even though one in three women have an abortion, very few talk openly about it.

Our research has also shown that abortion stigma is not universal or inevitable. Women can resist and reject abortion stigma. This means asserting their right to bodily autonomy, to make decisions about their own lives, and to have an abortion when faced with an unacceptable pregnancy. It also means rejecting secrecy, shame and self-blame. Abortion is a necessary part of the reproductive control that every woman needs in order to participate fully in society, and there is nothing to be ashamed of in that.”

These comments are taken from Lesley’s article Women who have more than one abortion are not ‘repeat offenders’ which was originally published in the i newspaper.

An exhibition, My Body My Life, accompanies Lesley’s research and is on tour in the UK, stopping off in Oxford between 7-11 November 2017.

In their own words: My abortion experience

To highlight the 50th anniversary of the Act being passed, as well as women’s current experiences of abortion, the research team has created a video collection based on their project’s findings on real women’s abortion experience.

Please note: these videos use actors to tell the stories from real life case studies about abortion experiences.