‘It made me feel compassion for her as if I was rewatching myself’: an exploratory study of how people who have had abortions respond to three contemporary television abortion plotlines

This exploratory study investigated how people who have had abortions responded to three abortion plotlines from US television. We selected three contemporary plotlines (from the shows Station 19, P-Valley, and Shrill) that depicted characters with diverse abortion experiences across race, age, and type of abortion, each featuring normalising messaging about abortion. We partnered with a research recruitment firm to recruit 30 participants who had at least one abortion in the last five years. After consenting to participate in the study, participants received a link to watch the abortion storyline and then answer three open-ended questions, followed by a demographic survey. We conducted a thematic qualitative analysis of responses. Many participants expressed positive reactions to the abortion plotlines and meaningful connections to the fictional characters who had had abortions. Some also expressed judgement of a character's reasons for having an abortion. Many reported that watching these clips reaffirmed the rightness of their own abortion decisions. Participants expressed more concern about the emotional resonance of the plotlines than the medical, political, or demographic accuracy. We argue that these clips provide a new interpretive lens through which to view abortions as normal, supported, and sometimes even powerful.