“I am empowered by this opportunity”: The role of abortion funds as an antidote to abortion stigma

Beyond the many structural obstacles to obtaining abortion care in the United States, abortion stigma is a forceful impediment to accessing timely services and an injurious feature of the experience for some people who have abortions (Sorhaindo & Lavelanet, 2022). This study utilized a qualitative methodology to explore the experiences of 830 abortion fund applicants in the Rocky Mountain Region to better understand the unique barriers they face in accessing care, the role that stigma plays in influencing applications for abortion fund support, and inform strategies to expand support infrastructure for those facing isolation and hostility in their pursuit of care. For the applicants in this study, stigma was frequently cited as an impetus for seeking abortion fund support and a burdensome aspect of the experience itself. Stigma—whether internalized, perceived, enacted, or structural—prevented many applicants from seeking material or emotional support from their social networks and spurred the dissolution of interpersonal relationships—with far-reaching emotional and material consequences. The results suggest that abortion funds go far beyond merely providing material support, also acting as an antidote to the harms associated with abortion stigma by promoting feelings of interconnectedness and mutuality among applicants. While accounts of stigma were pervasive in the applications, so, too, were the myriad strategies of resistance that applicants called upon to challenge stigmatizing narratives and position their choice to have an abortion as both moral and necessary. • Abortion stigma impacts access to timely services and is an injurious feature of the experience for some people who have abortions. • This study qualitatively assessed client applications from 830 abortion fund applicants in the Rocky Mountain Region. • Stigma was frequently cited as an impetus for seeking abortion fund support and a consequential and burdensome aspect of the experience itself. • Stigma repeatedly prevented applicants from seeking material or emotional support from social networks or precipitated the dissolution of interpersonal relationships. • While accounts of stigma were pervasive in the applications, so too were the myriad strategies of stigma resistance that applicants employed to position challenge stigmatizing narratives and position their choice to have an abortion as both moral and necessary. • The results of the study suggest that abortion funds go far beyond merely providing material support but act as an antidote to the harms associated with abortion stigma and promoting feelings of interconnectedness and mutuality among applicants.