The Association Between Reproductive Autonomy and Abortion Stigma Among Women Who Have Had Abortions in the United States

Abstract

One in four women in the United States (U.S.) will have an abortion during their reproductive years, yet abortion continues to be highly stigmatized. As a result, women who have had abortions may experience discrimination, judgment from others, shame, or guilt about their decision. We hypothesized that women who have higher levels of reproductive autonomy experience lower levels of stigma. We used data containing validated reproductive autonomy and abortion stigma measures from 587 women who had ever had abortions. We used multivariable regression models to evaluate the association between reproductive autonomy and abortion stigma. In the adjusted model, a total reproductive autonomy score was significantly negatively associated with a total abortion stigma score (β = -0.43, p