An annual report indicates shifts in how abortion is depicted on television. In 2025, abortion-related storylines appeared 65 times across various television programs, a slight decrease from 66 instances in 2024. The proportion of characters who underwent an abortion decreased to 37% in 2025, marking a 14% reduction since 2023.
These findings are from the Abortion Onscreen report, produced by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a research program focused on abortion and reproductive health at the University of California San Francisco.
Disparities in Representation
Research indicates a disconnect between on-screen depictions and real-world experiences. Approximately 60% of individuals seeking abortions in the United States encounter some form of barrier. However, only about a third of television characters pursuing abortions faced obstacles such as financial costs, childcare needs, travel distance to clinics, or insurance coverage issues. In 2025, most television narratives featuring characters struggling to access abortion services primarily focused on legal challenges.
Demographically, 80% of television characters seeking abortions are portrayed as upper or middle class. This contrasts with real-life data, where a majority of abortion patients face financial difficulties. The study suggests this disparity may obscure the impact of poverty on abortion access, potentially explaining the infrequent depiction of financial barriers in storylines.
Types of Abortion and Thematic Trends
In 2025, only three of the 65 abortion plotlines featured medication abortion, including a storyline on The Pitt where a teenager sought abortion pills. This is another area of divergence, as medication abortions constitute the majority of abortions in the U.S. Furthermore, 8% of television characters seeking abortions were parents, whereas most real-life abortion patients have at least one child.
The report also noted a decrease in characters receiving emotional support regarding their abortions. Several shows, including Chicago Med, 1923, Breathless, and Secrets We Keep, presented storylines that emphasized shame and stigma, often linked to religious perspectives. These portrayals, according to the report, tend to depict religious patients as exclusively Christian and associate religion solely with prohibiting abortion, rather than exploring its role as a potentially supportive aspect of decision-making.
Racial Representation
A notable improvement was observed in racial representation. In 2025, a slight majority of characters in abortion plotlines were people of color. This represents a change from a decade ago when television more frequently depicted wealthy, white women seeking abortions, despite people of color constituting the majority of abortion seekers in real life.