Abortion: the shift in stigmatisation from those seeking abortion to those providing it

Abstract

There have been important shifts in the characterisation of abortion and those who provide it over the last thirty years in Australia. This paper distinguishes three periods that represent these shifts. The most recent period reveals a renewed stigmatisation of abortion-providing doctors. Two intersecting factors are shown to have contributed to this. On the one hand those who oppose abortion have used key concepts from the women’s health agenda, public health discourse and consumerist rhetoric to position themselves as advocates for women’s health and to stigmatise and discredit doctors who perform abortions. On the other hand some feminist commentators have moved away from framing abortion as a ‘health issue’ and embraced elements of a discourse of ethics which had previously been the province of anti-abortion commentators. Within this contextual framework I illustrate the increased stigmatisation of doctors who perform abortion.

Key Words:

• abortion
• ethics
• feminism
• stigma
• women’s health