Last month, inroads attended the 4th International Exchange for Safe Abortion Rights Advocacy and hosted an in-person workshop on Stigma-busting Artivism for Abortion Justice.

The International Exchange for Safe Abortion Rights Advocacy is a gathering of advocates, healthcare providers, and activists from the Philippines and across the world. The exchange engages participants in critical dialogue, co-create innovative strategies, and strengthen our collective efforts to advance sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice, with a focus on safe abortion advocacy. 

The 4th International Exchange was organized by WGNRR and the Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network – Pinsan.

Abortion Stigma-Busting Artivism Workshop by inroads

In alignment with our mission to shift abortion narratives & resource the communities driving the abortion justice movements, inroads facilitated this workshop to support activists looking to use art for advocacy and narrative transformation in their communities. The session emphasized the power of stories expressed through arts to foster connections, inspire action, and shape our communities’ reproductive narratives, policies, and practices.

We are excited to share details of the exercises here to support more groups interested in carrying out similar spaces in their communities. All activities draw from the collective wisdom of diverse abortion justice movement leaders and collectives who have contributed to our gatherings and community spaces over the years.

The workshop opened with creative grounding exercises that encouraged participants to reflect on their identities and experiences through guided poetry writing using a shared prompt, establishing an atmosphere of openness, support, and community.

It was followed by a body mapping of reproductive experiences, during which participants reflected, embodied, and shared their own reproductive stories. They engaged deeply with the impact of current realities on their personal and shared experiences, expressed it visually, and built meaningful connections with the group.

It wrapped up with stigma-busting songwriting and karaoke, where groups reimagined popular songs as powerful anthems for reproductive justice. They created transformative narratives and connected them with the power of music and dance, creating a joyful and energizing environment that left everyone feeling inspired, connected, and re-energized to continue working toward abortion justice.

This workshop was a practical space to harness the power of the arts and storytelling as catalysts for social justice & change.  

As Mariana Gonzalez, the facilitator from the inroads team, shared, “This approach enables us to reflect on and creatively express our reproductive journeys, while building a strong foundation to co-create transformative abortion and reproductive justice narratives through art, deeply aligned with the shared experiences, values, and needs of our community.

We were thrilled to receive positive feedback and hear participants’ enthusiasm for integrating artivism into their reproductive justice work and interest in facilitating similar arts workshops with their local communities!

About inroads

inroads: The International Network for the Reduction of Abortion Discrimination and Stigma is a global feminist hub and community of practice dedicated to nurturing abortion justice movements to dismantle abortion stigma and its discriminatory and harmful outcomes.

We build cross-movement collective power, provide flexible resources, and strengthen movements across the global abortion justice ecosystem to build a world where everyone is able to access their inherent right to stigma-free abortion care.

With over 10 years in the field, our community currently comprises 2,600+ movement leaders and collectives across all areas of the abortion justice ecosystem in more than 120 countries.