Managing stigmatizing discourses in abortion care: Perspectives of clinic personnel

Abortion care in the United States has become the focus of increasingly contentious public discourse in recent years. Abortion providers and clinic personnel occupy a distinct vantage point from which to observe, engage with, and be subject to stigmatizing discourses relevant to their work. Drawing on stigma management communication theory, this study examines how 27 U.S. Planned Parenthood clinic personnel manage stigmatizing anti-abortion discourse in their interpersonal and professional interactions, as well as how such strategies resist or reify that discourse. Using phronetic iterative qualitative data analysis, we identified three dominant anti-abortion discourses and the stigma management strategies participants employed to resist them. First, participants denied the anti-abortion discourse that "Abortion is Immoral" by arguing that abortion is lifesaving, basic healthcare that needs no justification. Second, participants resisted the anti-abortion discourse that "Abortion is for 'the Other'" by emphasizing its prevalence, highlighting the hypocrisy of abortion stigma, and appealing to emotion to underscore the contextual nature of abortion decision-making. Third, participants countered the anti-abortion discourse that "Abortion is Dangerous" by providing factual evidence that abortion is safe. These findings offer important theoretical and practical insights into how abortion-related stigma is communicatively navigated and contested from the perspective of abortion providers and clinic personnel.