Beyond Abortion: Employee Experiences of Organizational Core Stigma Transfer, Synecdochical Stigma, and Occupational Taint at Planned Parenthood

For over 100 years, the U.S. Planned Parenthood (PP) organization has faced reputational challenges, making it difficult for the organization to attain its mission of providing “care, no matter what” in relation to sexual and reproductive healthcare. The current study examines how healthcare employees experience the nuances of organizational core stigma associated with PP. Interviews with 27 U.S. PP employees demonstrated how employees engage with PP’s abortion-care-based core stigma. Specifically, this core stigma extends and transfers well beyond actual incidences of abortion care, to be experienced by employees as attacks on employees’ character, and attacks on employee and familial safety, which constitute physical and moral taints that hinder employees’ abilities to do their work. This study contributes to communication scholarship by introducing synecdochical stigma and further interrogating processes related to stigma transfer, dirty work, and structural stigma. Further, the results inform destigmatizing campaigns, organizational practices, and employee training.