Shifting Power and Narratives

We actively lead and support efforts that shift and destigmatize narratives about abortion, challenge hierarchical power, and advocate for more and better resources for abortion stigma-busting work and the reproductive justice movements. 

Our worlds are shaped by the stories that surround us. Narratives around abortion that are stigmatizing can cloud up our worlds by restricting access, care, and support. They create systems that deny health and care for all, both in fully legal and restricted abortion settings, and especially impact marginalized communities, including queer, disabled, poor, Black, Indigenous, Dalit, and displaced people. While stigma-busting narratives that call for a world where everyone can have the abortions they wish to can precipitate real, radical change that is rooted in our right to bodily autonomy and to liberation. 

We embed stigma-busting work and power-shifting practices in the fabric of everything we do. 

To better illustrate this approach, here are some of the programs and spaces inroads organizes that most strongly connect with shifting power and narratives: 

Community-building building a world free of abortion stigma.

When it comes to deeply stigmatized social justice areas, like abortion justice, being part of a safe community of peers that center the stigma-busting voices of the people who have and support abortions and hold spaces for mutual support & connection is in itself a much-needed tool to shift abortion narratives and power. 

In our latest community evaluation, members shared how powerful being part of inroads was in supporting narrative shifts in their abortion justice journeys and work. 

Narrative Change Fellowships:

Spaces for mutual learning, narrative exploration, and weaving that bring members together over 3 to 6 months around a unique abortion stigma-busting theme. The fellowship supports diverse members leading vital abortion justice efforts in different countries to engage in intersectional stigma-busting and cross-movement conversations and initiatives. Fellows develop a personal or collective project around the fellowship theme to share with their own communities and the larger global inroads network. To support their participation and honor their work and contributions, all fellows are given a stipend of USD 1000 for the fellowship period.

Up to now, we have held two different fellowship programs: the Artists Busting Abortion Stigma fellowship and the Body and Territory: an Abortion Justice fellowship.

Reshaping Systems through Our Collective Power:

We firmly believe in collective action's power across the reproductive justice and feminist ecosystem to reshape systems and narratives. In 2024, inroads initiated and coordinated the launch of a Global Day to Destigmatize Abortions on March 28, a collective effort involving over 180+ reproductive justice organizations, which in its first year, reached more than 1.7 million people worldwide.

We actively participate in diverse coalition working groups, alliances, and campaigns, including the International Safe Abortion Day Campaign, the Global Safe Abortion Dialogues, and the Alliance for Feminist Movements. We are committed to supporting coalition efforts and bringing stigma-busting narratives and power-shifting processes to these collective efforts to nurture the reproductive justice ecosystem.

Educational Resources to Dismantling Abortion Stigma:

In partnership with Women Help Women, inroads is co-creating and rolling out an online course focused on understanding how intersectional abortion stigma shows up and learning to dismantle it, centered in global experiences for abortion freedom, justice, and care.We strive to center the diversity of voices of the people leading abortion justice efforts, and the intersections of oppression within all our spaces, with examples of cross-border abortion work. We are currently in conversation with different partners to adapt, scale up, and replicate this course in multiple settings and contexts. 

Shifting narratives and power with mutual learning workshops, dialogues, training, panels, and cohorts & festivals.

Mutual learning spaces that center topics and approaches to dismantling intersecting stigmas within cross-border abortion work. 

Since our creation, we have hosted 13 in-person community gatherings with over 400 movement leaders and held over 50 of movement-led global workshops and learning spaces for the reproductive justice ecosystem.

They are co-created with iInroads members who lead abortion justice efforts in different latitudes, bringing their diverse wisdom, experiences, and contexts to the forefront. They are created both internally for our over 2500 members and externally at key conferences.