Tides Center

The Tides Center houses the Sea Change Program, previously housed at UCSF, which is dedicated to transforming the culture around abortion through social science research and implementing practices to reduce stigma. During the prior grant period, Sea Change ran an innovative research study on women’s book clubs that read a collection of essays including some women’s stories about their abortions. The study found that after reading the essays, nearly all of the women who had had abortions also then shared their personal experiences with abortion. Importantly, hearing the stories moved the listeners’ attitudes in the pro-choice direction. In fact, attitudes toward abortion changed the most among participants with the most prejudicial views toward abortion before the discussion. This next phase of support would enable Sea Change to expand to more book clubs, relaunch the essays to reach individual readers and activists, and conduct other interventions and research focused on reducing abortion stigma and fighting restrictive cultural norms related to abortion.