Fewer characters on TV had abortions in 2025 — and more stories reinforced shame : NPR

Stories about abortion and talk about it have been broadcast on television 65 times this year, in such prestigious dramas as Pitt And Call the midwifeon reality shows such as WAG to wealth And Love is blind and in low-grade animated comedies like Family Guy And South Park. This is approximately the same as last year. In 2024 There were 66 such storylines in the series..

But over the past few years, the number of characters who actually have an abortion has dropped significantly. 37% had an abortion in 2025, down 14% from 2023.

This is according to Abortion Onscreen annual report. It is a result of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, a research program on abortion and reproductive health based at the University of California, San Francisco.

“I think stigma still exists even in supposedly liberal Hollywood,” says researcher Steph Herold. She says the report, which has been published for about a decade, reflects a complete lack of accurate understanding of the use of abortion in America. For example, she points to studies showing that about 60% of actual Americans seeking an abortion face some kind of barrier.

“But only about a third of on-screen characters face any barriers to abortion,” Herold said. “Whether it's not being able to figure out the cost of an abortion, not having someone to watch their children or cover for them at work, having to go to clinics miles away, or having insurance in other states that wouldn't cover the costs.” Most 2025 TV shows depicting women seeking abortions focus on legal obstacles past and present.

On television, 80% of characters seeking abortions are upper or middle class, but in real life Most abortion patients have difficulty making ends meet. “This [disparity] obscures the role that poverty plays in preventing access to abortion and may explain why we so rarely see storylines in which characters struggle with financial barriers to abortion access,” the study said.

This year a teenager Pitt was looking for abortion pills to end her pregnancy, one of three stories featuring medication abortion out of 65 abortion storylines this year. Here's another discrepancy between the on-screen numbers and the actual numbers: Studies show that abortion pills cause the majority of abortions in the United States. Another difference: Only 8% of people seeking abortions on television are parents. In real life most abortion patients have at least one child.

Herold said it's unrealistic to expect television to perfectly reflect the current use of abortion in the U.S., but she said she's disappointed with some trends. This year, she said, fewer characters received emotional support about their abortions, and there were more TV series, including Chicago Med, 1923, Breathless And The secrets we keep features storylines that highlight the shame and stigma surrounding abortion, especially due to religion. These storylines, the report says, “obscure the diversity of religious practices among people who have abortions, portray religious patients as exclusively Christian, and associate religion only with the prohibition of abortion, rather than being a meaningful or supportive part of someone's abortion decision and experience.”

But even though abortion has long been a hot political issue, Herold says millions of Americans have had some experience with abortion. “Whether you're getting an abortion yourself or helping your daughter or a friend,” she said, adding that the stories reflecting a variety of abortion experiences will be familiar to many viewers.

One bright spot, she said, is that television is better reflecting the racial realities of abortion. A small majority of characters in abortion storylines are people of color, and although they are by far the majority of those wishing to have an abortion in real lifethis marks a noticeable improvement compared with a decade earlier, when television shows were more likely to portray women seeking abortions as rich and white..