representation

TV Abortions Seriously Underrepresent the Most Common Abortion Method

Grey’s Anatomy. Photo: Liliane Lathan/ABC

Abortions on TV do not look like abortions in real life (most of the time). According to a new report from Abortions Onscreen, a research program led by the University of California San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Heatlh, abortion by pill, or medication abortion, “makes up more than half of all U.S. abortions, yet only 4 plotlines (6 percent) specifically portrayed a character having an abortion by pill.” At the same time, some shows depicted people either dying or killing others in the process of obtaining an abortion, while others only showed abortions sought in extreme circumstances. The report noted that a typical abortion circumstance includes a parent struggling to make ends meet. Shows often get the “who” wrong as well: “Television has long misrepresented who gets abortions, choosing to tell the stories of characters who are whiter and wealthier than their real life counterparts.” This year is no different.

Abortion Onscreen documented at least 60 abortion plotlines or mentions from 52 distinct television shows over the course of January to December 2022 — a year that saw the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case overturn Roe v. Wade, leading to the criminalization of abortion in a number of states — to compile their data. While the report does not theorize why the most popular form of abortion in the United States is the least popular form on television, it does point out that two shows — the Shonda Rhimes–produced dramas Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy — include “dialogue from clinician characters stating the accurate abortion-pill protocol, which may contribute to increased knowledge among viewers about medication abortion.” In The Hollywood Reporter’s “Actress Roundtable” out December 16, Claire Foy was a bit more blunt about why many abortions look different onscreen from how it looks in real life. While working with director Sarah Polley on the film Women Talking, she felt Polley was able to articulate how “childbirth, rape, abortion, are fetishized by moviemakers.”

“It might help a lot of people to understand that it’s human beings who are going through these things,” she said to panelists Michelle Yeoh, Danielle Deadwyler, Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Williams, and Emma Corrin. “You have to look at who’s making the movie, why they’re making it, why they’re choosing to put that scene in it and why are they choosing that frame of reference to portray it? Are they fetishizing it and using it because it’s gratuitous? What does it say?”

While shows continue to overwhelmingly underrepresent the use of abortion pills in favor of more dramatic methods, which may contribute to misinformed ideas about what most abortions look like, conservative organizations working to eliminate it seem to be aware of the widespread use of the pill. Since the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, anti-choice organizations have a new target. Lawyers from the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom filed a suit against HHS and the FDA in November to reverse the FDA’s approval of the abortion medication mifepristone. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo with Judge Joseph Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, presiding over the case.

Perhaps the next season of Grey’s Anatomy can realistically portray a medication abortion, highlighting the fact that even the abortion pill — even in states where it’s legal — isn’t a guarantee in this country.

TV Abortions Underrepresent the Most Common Abortion Method