Amplifying Youth Voice
in Abortion Research
Overview
As part of the Contraception and Abortion Research Team (CART) Access Project, this Health Canada funded study seeks to identify new ways of making abortion information and services more accessible and affirming for equity-deserving groups across Canada.
By empowering youth researchers to lead such efforts, new insights and interpretations from youths' intersectional perspectives can enrich approaches to delivering abortion information and care. YWL youth researchers engaged a diverse sample of 45 family planning professionals (e.g., pharmacists, family physicians, OB-GYNs, nurses, midwives, social workers, abortion navigators) from across Canada in focus groups and individual interviews. These conversations with adult professionals explored how services and approaches might be more optimally designed to provide affirming and judgment- free abortion information and care, by, with, and for equity-deserving groups, including youth.
YWL researchers then created infographics and other easy-to-use abortion information and referral tools for both providers and patients to use, respectively. You can download these resources right here on our website. The project is also creating continuing professional development resources for social workers to optimize their knowledge and ability to provide abortion information and resources to service-users.
Our project funding has been extended for another year, and we will be engaging young people in research about their experiences and preferences regarding abortion information and care. We are also developing webinars, trainings, and arts-based and creative media pieces that are inspired from our work through this project, to date.
Social workers are in myriad community-based and institutional settings. Important contributors to the abortion workforce, they connect service-seekers to medically accurate information and needed care, while navigating complex circumstances and systems. Yet, social workers receive minimal training on abortion. This project established further evidence on social work’s role in abortion care and identified professional supports that may prove most useful to social workers.
Les travailleurs sociaux se trouvent dans une multitude de milieux communautaires et institutionnels, et sont d’importants contributeurs à la main-d'œuvre de l'avortement. Ils relient les demandeurs de services aux informations médicales et aux soins nécessaires, tout en naviguant dans des circonstances et des systèmes complexes. Pourtant, les travailleurs sociaux reçoivent une formation minimale sur l'avortement. Ce projet a établi des preuves supplémentaires sur le rôle du travail social dans les soins liés à l’avortement et a identifié les soutiens professionnels qui pourraient s’avérer les plus utiles aux travailleurs sociaux.
Contributors
News
Abortion 101 Decision-Mapping in Ontario
Abortion Quick Access Guide for Toronto and GTA
Abortion Affirmations for Trans and Non-Binary Folks
Abortion Myths Debunked
Abortion Options Timeline
Cultural Humility Checklist
Myths, Facts, and Pro-Choice Considerations Regarding Sex-Selective Abortions
Social Workers' Abortion Checklist
Trans and Non-binary Abortion Poster
What Should I Know about Crisis Pregnancy Centres
Working With Trans and Non-binary Patients
Working With Youth Who Are Religious
Publications
Understanding social work’s role in abortion care: A scoping review protocol
Begun, S., Lee, Y., Sharma, P., Sivakumaran, S., Bautista, C., Ananthathurai, G., Arhinson, A., Bagen, T., & Seiyad, H. (2023, July 20). Understanding social work’s role in abortion care: A scoping review protocol. Open Science Framework. doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/DURQ5
Understanding social work’s role in abortion care: A comprehensive 50-year scoping review (1973-2023)
Sharma, P., Halverson, J., Lee, Y., Sivakumaran, S., Bautista, C., Seiyad, H., Arhinson, A., Bagen, T., Ananthathurai, G., & Begun, S. (under review). Understanding social work’s role in abortion care: A comprehensive 50-year scoping review (1973-2023).
Barriers and enablers to providing abortion care: Interdisciplinary perspectives from healthcare and allied helping professionals
Seiyad, H., Griarte, K., Sivakumaran, S., Ananthathurai, G., Bautista, C., Bagen, T., Arhinson, A., Reid-Henry, A., Sharma, P., Halverson, J., & Begun, S. (in progress). Barriers and enablers to providing abortion care: Interdisciplinary perspectives from healthcare and allied helping professionals.
Coming Soon
Interdisciplinary professionals’ perspectives on how to make abortion care more accessible and affirming for equity-deserving groups across Canada
Sivakumaran, S., Griarte, K., Bautista, C., Arhinson, A., Ananthathurai, G., Seiyad, H., Bagen, T., Reid-Henry, A., Sharma, P., Halverson, J., & Begun, S. (in progress). Interdisciplinary professionals’ perspectives on how to make abortion care more accessible and affirming for equity-deserving groups across Canada.
Coming Soon
Social work and abortion: Social workers’ perspectives on challenges, opportunities, and needs for education and continuing professional development regarding abortion care
Ananthathurai, G., Bautista, C., Bagen, T., Sivakumaran, S., Arhinson, A., Reid-Henry, A., Seiyad, H., Halverson, J., Griarte, K., Sharma, P., & Begun, S. (in progress). Social work and abortion: Social workers’ perspectives on challenges, opportunities, and needs for education and continuing professional development regarding abortion care.
