UCSF

The impact of abortion stigma is broad. Stigma impacts abortion providers, abortion patients, and the broader community. Understanding how race and culture affect aspects of abortion stigma may be an important piece of expanding access to and support of abortion. We conducted a systematic search for studies involving abortion stigma and race in PubMed, PubMed Central, Embase, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, GenderWatch, and Ethnic NewsWatch on January 7, 2020. Articles were eligible for inclusion if they explored stigma and included participant race and/or ethnicity, were in English, and included original research. Thirty studies were included in the final review, including 11 quantitative studies, 9 qualitative studies, 4 mixed methods studies, and 6 dissertations. Most studies provided basic racial and demographic data but did not provide racial differences in experiences of abortion stigma. Three quantitative studies found that women of color had different experiences of abortion stigma compared to White women. Non-peer-reviewed studies of qualitative PhD-level dissertation research found that race, culture, religion, and immigration had unique and complex effects on abortion stigma experienced by Latinx women. While abortion stigma is common, we found that there is a lack of research contextualizing the racialization of the United States. Quantitative studies found that women of color experience abortion stigma at lower levels compared to White women. However, qualitative analyses of experiences suggest that quantitative measures of abortion stigma may not capture unique aspects of abortion stigma as experienced by women of color.