Disclosure management, stigma resistance, and resilience: Parallels between abortion work and LGBT identities

We sought to understand the parallels in identity disclosure decisions between abortion providers and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Like LGBT identity, abortion work is highly politicized and stigmatized in U.S. society, and we hypothesized that abortion workers and LGBT individuals may share similar struggles and strategies around identity disclosure. We explored how experiences of resistance, resilience, and marginalization among abortion providers might mirror those of individuals with LGBT identities. We used qualitative focus group data from 8 abortion clinics whose workers participated in the ProvidersShare Workshop. ProvidersShare is a multi-session workshop aimed at lessening the burdens abortion workers face due to work-related stressors (for example, stigma, harassment, and fear of violence). Workshop participants actively managed their abortion worker identity using discretion, concealment, and fabrication in various contexts, all strategies also employed by LGBT individuals. Some workers referred to disclosure of their role in abortion work as “coming out” while others actively hid, avoided, or lied about their employment to others. Interestingly, LGBT-identified participants drew on previous experiences with disclosure dilemmas to guide their response to abortion work as stigmatized work. Resistance to stigmatized identity included “re-claiming” words like “abortionist” and “pro-life.” We discuss similarities between the challenges facing abortion workers and LGBT-identified individuals, and common coping strategies employed by both groups to deal with these stigmatized identities. We explore the utility of these identity disclosure management strategies, and suggest possible interventions building on the strengths of these practices.