Facts and fictions: Characters seeking abortion on American television, 2005–2014

Abstract

Onscreen representations may influence public understandings, contributing to the production of abortion stigma and judgments about appropriate restrictions on abortion care. Understanding the particular shape of inaccuracies around abortion portrayals can enable advocates and healthcare practitioners to identify and respond to popular misperceptions.

Measuring decisional certainty among women seeking abortion

“…Importantly, our study is not able to disentangle the temporal relationship between these variables. It is plausible that women who are more conflicted about their decision seek out or internalize negative information about abortion in their environment [37,38] more readily than those who are certain of their decision. Alternatively, endorsement of myths about abortion, or, more broadly, holding negative attitudes toward abortion, could introduce uncertainty into women's decision-making.…”

Doctors and Witches, Conscience and Violence: Abortion Provision on American Television

“…For some plotlines, this meant watching multiple episodes to view the entire story arc. The two authors jointly created a codebook, using both data‐ and theory‐driven code development based on previous research . The first author and a research assistant pretested the codebook to confirm that the codes were mutually understood.…”

“…The two authors jointly created a codebook, using both data-and theory-driven code development based on previous research. 30,31 The fi rst author and a research assistant pretested the codebook to confi rm that the codes were mutually understood. The codebook evolved throughout the coding process, and was revised periodically with the consensus of the entire study team, which consisted of both authors and the research assistant.…”

“…On‐screen depictions have been shown to influence public perceptions and increase stigma related to other health issues, including mental illness, obesity and infertility . Such negative frames exist regarding on‐screen representations of abortion: Abortion is consistently depicted as more dangerous than it truly is, and characters who obtain abortions differ from real women getting abortions both demographically and in their reasons for doing so . This body of research suggests that television's depictions of fictional abortion providers might contribute to the stigmatization of actual providers.…”

Pregnant Women's Experiences of Crisis Pregnancy Centers: When Abortion Stigmatization Succeeds and Fails

“…Empirical work on abortion stigma has sought to measure its prevalence and document its effects (Cockrill et al ; Cowan ; Hanschmidt et al ; Major and Gramzow ; Shellenberg and Tsui ) and identify the “sources” of abortion stigma (see Hanschmidt et al for a review). Other research has pointed to social practices that (re)produce abortion stigma, including in film and television plotlines (Sisson and Kimport ; Sisson and Kimport ), legal discourses (Abrams ; Abrams ; Weitz and Kimport ), and “public attitudes” (see Hanschmidt et al for a review) as well as some abortion clinic practices (Kimport, Cockrill, and Weitz ). Finally, scholars have evaluated social movement activist efforts to contest abortion stigma and/or strengthen rhetorical support for abortion rights, such as the #ShoutYourAbortion Twitter campaign (Kosenko, Winderman, and Pugh ), the “I had an Abortion” t‐shirt campaign (Swift ), and consciousness‐raising speak‐outs of the 1960s (Dubriwny ).…”