In 2019, Carrie Purcell contributed to a paper outlining some of the methodological challenges involved in conducting research related to sexuality. The paper was co-authored by all the researchers who were funded by the Wellcome Trust’s 2017 sexualities and health funding call. With reference to the SASS project, the paper looks at research ethics and governance issues which shape research on ‘sensitive’ issues such as abortion. It reflects on whether putting concerns about ‘sensitivity’ ahead of anything else in this context suggests that abortion (and the act of talking about it to researchers) may somehow be damaging to research participants, and that such a view in fact contributes to perpetuating abortion stigma.