
Steph Herold
Sea Change Program
Sea Change Program
Culture & Conversation Abortion
Anti-abortion films spread misinformation and build a world that is distinctly white, Christian, and conservative.
Until we have more insight about the reasons for the 25 percent decrease in the national abortion rate, the abortion rate is just that: a number.
This is the first study to test the potency of the pills themselves.
As researchers note in a new study, “the ability to access abortion care when needed—even if more than once—should be prioritized.”
We need documentaries that go further, by challenging the notion that women are just victims of the state, that abortions are primarily a sad and tragic affair, and that the only reason to care about abortion restrictions is because they affect “respectable” women who want to pursue motherhood.
While these restrictions provide logistical and financial obstacles to obtaining an abortion, they often do not achieve the desired emotional obstacle of forcing a patient to reconsider their abortion decision.
In a recent column, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist distinguishes abortion from other types of health care—a common false dichotomy but a peculiar stance from a global health advocate.
A new study shows how today's TV doesn't measure up to past depictions, often exaggerating abortion risk and how easy it is to get care.
Simply put, Hyde is a bad policy and leads to poor health outcomes, especially for women of color and people who are struggling to make ends meet. Here's an explanation of the emotional and cultural effect Hyde has had over the last 40 years.
While a new Associated Press report suggests the abortion rate is declining in almost all states, we still don't know whether there's been an increase in reproductive wellness. Focusing only on a lowered abortion rate as metric of health and well-being is both inaccurate and stigmatizing of abortion.
This week, we released Saying Abortion Aloud, a report and set of recommendations for those sharing their personal abortion stories publicly and the advocates who support them.
Despite its ubiquity in our culture, abortion stigma has garnered relatively little scholarly attention. Now, after two years of effort, there's a new issue of the academic journal Women and Health that focuses entirely on the subject.
In order to guide our activist priorities, we must envision what our long-term goal of a world without abortion stigma would ultimately look like.
Culture change is distinct from policy change and health-care access, but it’s just as important. It’s difficult to imagine long-term policy gains without doing the hard work to change norms, beliefs, and behavior.
Knowing what patients value and need from a clinic at the time of their abortion can help us make sure that abortion care is not only safe, but also patient-centered and provided in a compassionate manner.
How can we use all the data we have to create programs that actually make a dent in abortion stigma?
Requiring Medicaid coverage of abortion is a far cry from guaranteeing that people can access an abortion when they need one.
Instead of only emphasizing that couples should use contraception consistently and correctly, we have to figure out how to help them clarify their feelings about pregnancy, even if those feelings are messy and complicated.
It may be true that the pro-choice movement is "more fragmented than it's ever been," but this is not because young people are clamoring to overthrow those who are running legacy organizations.
Many highly trained physicians provide abortion care, so why do abortion providers continue to be stereotyped as substandard doctors?
How do the intersections between adoption, poverty, race, and class play out today?
We should understand women who have had multiple abortions through their individual life experiences rather than judging them based on their pregnancy history.
We know what we think about the Hyde Amendment. But what do women who are on Medicaid, the very people who are most affected by Hyde, think about the restrictions it places on their insurance coverage?
When we rely on a relief/regret dichotomy to define women's emotional experiences after their abortions, we leave little room for the complexity inherent in women’s reproductive lives.
What we need to constantly keep in mind is how we are deciding who is most in need of help, and reevaluating how that fits in with our values. Are we ok with only helping certain kinds of people who need abortions? Can we strategize for a future in which we don’t have to make these tough decisions? How can we get there?
Over the last few months, there's been an electric energy around abortion story sharing. What's going on here? Why are so many people "coming out" now? And what are the similarities and differences in their experiences?
Even in New York and the 16 other states that provide Medicaid coverage for abortion, thousands of low-income women fall between the cracks. Many women may be too poor to pay for abortion procedures, but they are uninsured or not poor enough to obtain public health insurance coverage like Medicaid.
What a new study suggests about reducing abortion stigma.
New billboard targets latinas with anti-abortion messages. And if you don’t speak out about this racist propaganda, they will target you next.
Most women who have second trimester abortions do so out of necessity - not choice.