The “friend who has already aborted”: A look at shared experiences in a virtual community

Abstract The Brazilian research on abortion has pointed to the existence of a paradoxical dynamic about the event. If, on the one hand, it is a taboo subject surrounded by stigma, evidencing an apparent social invisibility of this practice, on the other hand, it is a common event in the reproductive life of women of all social classes, races, and religions, showing a culture of broad sharing of knowledge and practice on the subject. This paper is about the character of the “friend who has already aborted”, which appears in narratives about the abortion experience shared publicly on an online platform, understood here as a virtual exchange community on the subject, maintained by the international NGO Women on Web. A virtual ethnography revealed that this person gains prominence in the narratives and the universe of the interpersonal social networks mobilized by women in its abortive course, relationships that stimulate reflection on the place of solidarity among women in the collectivization of knowledge and strategies and the production of a common resistance in the context of clandestinity and stigmatization underpinning the theme of abortion in the country.