This perpetuates abortion stigma because it implies there is a wrong time to have an abortion, when in reality any decision to have an abortion is between a pregnant person and their health care provider. We should trust people and their doctors about when they should get care. A decades-long concerted effort from anti-abortion groups has led many people to feel uncomfortable about abortion later in pregnancy through the use of made-up phrases like "late-term" abortion, which is not a medical phrase and does not exist. There's no medical designation of when "later" in pregnancy, either: the reality is that every pregnancy is different, and people will always need abortions later in pregnancy. Laws that ban abortion later in pregnancy don’t keep people safe; they stigmatize abortion and harm people who need care.

This perpetuates abortion stigma because it implies there are moral reasons and immoral reasons to have an abortion. While contraception prevents pregnancy, abortion ends a pregnancy, so it’s not possible to use abortion as contraception. People who say they don’t approve of “abortion as birth control” typically mean they don’t approve of someone having more than one abortion. There is no acceptable or unacceptable number of abortions for a person to have if abortion truly carries no stigma.

This, as well as statements that abortions should be “rare,” perpetuates stigma by painting abortion as something to be avoided as much as possible. When we view abortion as something to be avoided, we inherently are stigmatizing the procedure. Being “pro-abortion” is like being “pro-colonoscopy”—it is up to a person and their health care provider to determine if that procedure is right for them.

By assuming the decision to get an abortion is a difficult decision for everyone, we stigmatize it. The reality is that for most people, abortion doesn't involve any trauma or negative mental health effects at all. The overwhelming majority of people who’ve had abortions say that they mostly felt relief after their abortions. Abortion is not inherently traumatic, and researchers have found that it does not cause any negative mental health consequences—actually, having an abortion is associated with better mental and physical health.