Abortion stigma, abortion exceptionalism, and medical curricula

Abstract

While it is well established that medical student learning about abortion is inadequate and lacks systemisation, there is little research on why this might be the case. This exploratory study draws on a survey sent to 438 medical educators at Australia’s 21 accredited medical schools through March–May 2021. Forty-eight educators responded to the survey. In this article, I examine their responses alongside policy and research on medical education to consider how curricula are determined. I conceptualise abortion exceptionalism–the singling out of abortion from other areas of medicine on the grounds that it is special, different, or more complex or risky than is empirically justified–as a mode of ‘stigma-in-action’, arguing that medical curricula are powerful sites for its reproduction and undoing.