Abortion stigma community of practice

The Abortion stigma Community of Practice is hosted by the Reproductive Justice Hallmark. It strives to destigmatise abortion in Australia by cultivating and enhancing rigorous, collaborative, and evidence-based abortion stigma research, measurement, and intervention.

Below are some highlights of our work. Please get in touch to learn more or work together to tackle abortion stigma in Australia.

Who are we?

Dr Sarah Ratcliffe (she/her)

Committed to advancing health and social equity, Sarah combines research with community-building approaches to dismantle stigma. Working with grassroot, local, and international partners, Sarah co-develops evidence-based resources for equitable, sustainable social change initiatives. Her research expertise spans applied psychology, qualitative methods, systematic reviews, and measurement development and validation.

Connect with Sarah and find out more via LinkedIn, Instagram, ORCiD, or email.

Dr Shelly Makleff (she/her)

Shelly’s research focuses on promoting equitable access to high-quality abortion care by examining the interrelationship between stigma and quality of care. She has expertise in stigma, social norms, understanding how prevention interventions work, and conducting qualitative research with abortion seekers and healthcare workers globally.

Connect with Shelly and find out more via LinkedIn, ORCiD, the University of Melbourne, or email.

Dr Kari Vallury (she/her)

Kari has expertise in measuring abortion stigma in Australia, conducting mixed methods reproductive health and rights research, and resource codesign with priority populations. She developed The Australian Abortion Stigma Survey, the first tool to measure perceived and anticipated abortion stigma among diverse community samples in Australia. Kari has a background in global public health, training and evaluation.

Connect with Kari and find out more via LinkedIn or email.

Check out our work:

• Ratcliffe, S. E., Smylie, C. S., Pinkus, R. T., Dar-Nimrod, I., Juraskova, I., & Dhillon, H. M. (2023). What is the optimal tool for measuring abortion stigma? A systematic review. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care, 28(2), 97–112.
• Makleff, S., Belfrage, M., Wickramasinghe, S. et al. (2023). Typologies of interactions between abortion seekers and healthcare workers in Australia: a qualitative study exploring the impact of stigma on quality of care. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 23, 646.
• Vallury, K. (2023). Abortion Stigma in a Pro-choice World: A Mixed Methods Study of Abortion Stigma in Australia. (Doctoral dissertation, Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.).
• Ratcliffe, S., Makleff, S., Noonan, A., and Vallury, K. (25 May 2023). Will the Senate Inquiry re-ignite hopes for universal public abortion in Australia? Women’s Agenda.
• Vallury K, Kelleher D, Soffi A, Mogharbel C, Makleff S. (2023) Systemic delays to abortion access undermine the health and rights of abortion seekers across Australia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. ​

Get involved:

The Community of Practice is eager to work with researchers to help tackle abortion stigma in Australia. Please reach out via the above links to discuss further.