CURRENT SOCIAL ISSUE SOCIAL AGENDA

73 Million Induced Abortions Take Place Worldwide Every Year

61% of all uninteneded pregnancies end in abortion

67% of UK women would not tell their family about their abortion

Only 34% would tell their friends about abortion

On June 24th, 2022, the US Supreme court overturned the landmark legislation Roe v Wade. This has dismantled women’s reproductive rights by allowing states to ban abortion and gives millions of women in the US no say in having a child. It isn’t just the USA that is this effecting, as women worldwide are now anxious of whether their right to an abortion will be taken away as easily as it has done for people living in the US. 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide every year, with 61% of unintended pregnancies ending in an abortion (World Health Organisation, 2022). 214,256 of these abortions happened in the UK in 2021, more than any other year since the Abortion Act in 1967 (Gov.UK, 2021). Abortions are already a taboo subject, and the illegalisation of safe abortions further adds to the stigma that abortions are shameful and not a woman’s decision to make. It has been revealed that as many as 67% of UK women would not tell their family about an abortion (Young, 2019), and only 34% would tell their friends (Moss, 2019).

There is a shocking lack of campaigns created by fashion brands surrounding reproductive rights. This is strange as the women this will be affecting are very likely to be many fashion brands key consumers. While brands like Gucci and Victoria’s Secret have spoken about the recent overturning of Roe v Wade (Baudler, 2022), and are striving to help any employee’s affected, there has been no campaign created about it by any fashion or beauty brand.

There have only been a few campaigns about eliminating abortion stigma, and none have been created by fashion or beauty brands, which means Miu Miu can become the first. Advocates for Youth run a successful ‘Abortion Out Loud’ campaign where 1500 people have shared their abortion stories which ‘harnesses the power of storytelling, grassroots organizing, leadership development, and policy advocacy to end abortion stigma and strengthen support for young people’s access to abortion’ (Advocates for Youth, no date.).

Fashion brands have however created campaigns focused on people speaking up and asking for help regarding their mental health issues, which is something that ties into abortion stigma. The Mayfair Group’s efforts to raise mental health awareness is admirable, with a campaign called ‘Answers may vary’ normalising mental health discussions, with the pop-up shop for the campaign raising $10,000 to mental health awareness non-profits. Their ‘Empathy, Always’ collection has also worked to spread light into mental health, with celebrities like Bella Hadid adorning their ‘Your emotions are valid’ crewnecks (Saint-Elien, 2022).

by Miu Miu