Criminalization; restrictive policy; and discriminatory, non-scientific laws are all too familiar to those in the fight to secure the health, happiness, and rights of all people to abortion. When we focus on the individual policies and laws it can feel a little bit like we’re battling against a many headed dragon or, to use a very US-focused phrase, “playing whack-a-mole”; when we conquer one bad policy another 3 pop up in their place. Members of inroads are instead looking to dismantle the stigmas that keep dangerous and useless policies off the books and away from the people we serve, and we can also use stigma theory and perspectives to look at how we approach policy in a new way. We regularly discuss how can we advocate proactively for the values and rights we want so as not to throw our future selves “under the bus” or just postpone the next big stigma-filled policy debate.

As part of inroads’ bi-monthly Bring Your Own Questions Webinar Series, this action-packed webinar dug into the ways that abortion stigma can take root in national, regional, and institutional policies and looks at how policy can be changed or created to specifically take aim on stigma.

And to support your watching or in case you don’t have time to watch now, take a look at the beautiful and informative graphical notes created by Hope Tyson: