Stigma Rituals as Pathways to Activism: Stigma Convergence in a Post Abortion Recovery Group

In this article we examine stigma construction in “post abortion recovery groups.” We extend Goffman’s stigma framework by considering how stigma may operate on a continuum through increasingly public stigma rituals as group participants move through four stages: internalization; ingroup membership avowal; reconciliation with outgroup members; and finally, restitution via public activism. We also develop the concept of stigma convergence, noting that therapeutic disclosures in group settings may operate to homogenize participants’ understandings of their stigma. Data come from primary texts from post abortion group materials and an ethnographic study of a post abortion recovery group in Mississippi, one of the most religious and anti-abortion states in the United States.