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Women, stigma and un/safe abortion in Kenya

Bibliographic Data

ID4592728
AuthorsChimaraoke Izugbara (0000-0003-4908-1131, African Population and Health Research Center), Chimaraoke O Izugbara, Carolyne Egesa (0000-0001-6622-1613, African Population and Health Research Center), Rispah Okelo, R O Okelo (African Population and Health Research Center)
Year2015
Volume141
Pages9-18
Publication date2015-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Science & Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.07.019
PMID26233296
OpenAlexW1891857942
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited68

Public health discourses on safe abortion assume the term to be unambiguous. However, qualitative evidence elicited from Kenyan women treated for complications of unsafe abortion contrasted sharply with public health views of abortion safety. For these women, safe abortion implied pregnancy termination procedures and services that concealed their abortions, shielded them from the law, were cheap and identified through dependable social networks. Participants contested the notion that poor quality abortion procedures and providers are inherently dangerous, asserting them as key to women's preservation of a good self, management of stigma, and protection of their reputation, respect, social relationships, and livelihoods. Greater public health attention to the social dimensions of abortion safety is urgent

Abortion · Criminology · Environmental health · Family medicine · Family planning · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Population · Pregnancy · Psychiatry · Public health · Qualitative research · Social science · Social stigma · Sociology · Stigma (botany · Unsafe abortion · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Global Maternal and Child Health · Medicine · Nursing · Reproductive Health and Contraception