Online spaces are increasingly used by people seeking support around sexual and reproductive healthcare and can offer anonymity and flexibility. Relatively little is known about how these spaces are used in relation to abortion. This article explores what informal online spaces (eg, social media and discussion forums) offer to those seeking support around abortion, in the face of increasingly digitalised healthcare, persistent abortion stigma and resource constraints on sexual and reproductive health services.
We conducted semi-structured interviews with individuals who had sought abortion-related support online. Twenty-three women, aged 20–54 years, who had undergone abortion and were living in Scotland at the time of the interview were recruited through social media and online advertisements. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
We identified three principal affordances of online spaces that shaped participants’ experiences of accessing support online: (1) privacy—participants chose online spaces based on perceptions of the potential (in)visibility of their interactions with abortion-related content and anonymity; (2) temporal flexibility—support could be sought as and when needed, derived from posts long after they were created; and (3) connection to others with experiential knowledge of abortion—engagement ranged from active interactions to anonymous browsing, with one-way participation providing meaningful support at low social cost.
Our findings suggest that online spaces can provide flexible, stigma-sensitive, abortion-affirming support. Those who provide abortion services should consider ways in which trustworthy online spaces can be integrated into existing care pathways to reduce isolation and address unmet social support needs.