Resolve, tenacity, and relief: abortion narratives from a rural primary health centre in India

“They gave me pills to remove it and put me on a drip. There was a lot of bleeding so they kept me here. […] I was scared, but after Doctor said it was finished; I felt relaxed.” – Lakshmi*, age 24. Despite legalisation (1971), accessing abortion in India requires persistence and tenacity. Women often need to ‘convince’ partners or family, identify providers, arrange transportation and treatment costs, and grapple with abortion stigma. Centring women’s abortion experiences, my research explores their negotiation, contestation, and defiance of barriers to (re)claim their agencies.