Abortion group upset about fewer positive abortion plotlines in 2025

Pop Culture·By Cassy Cooke

A pro-abortion research group is bemoaning the lack of positive abortion stories in media this year.

Key Takeaways:

Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) complained that fewer abortion plotlines were included on television in 2025.
When abortions were portrayed, ANSIRH said most were done in a negative manner.
There were 65 plotlines involving abortion, according to ANSIRH, with most characters choosing not to go through with the procedure.

The Details:

According to the press release published by ANSIRH, its annual Abortion Onscreen 2025 report found 65 abortion plotlines on television in 2025. This was on par with 2024, which saw abortion depicted 66 times. However, this was not satisfactory to ANSIRH; the pro-abortion group noted that "only 37%" of these abortion stories involved a character actually going through with the procedure, a decrease from the previous two years.

The UCSF research group, which was founded specifically for the purpose of expanding abortion access, also pointed out that most of the plotlines involved "barriers" to getting abortions, whether historically or contemporarily. Yet this was still not good enough for ANSIRH, which wrote:

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[T]he majority of these plotlines did not show the complex reality of debilitating abortion restrictions across the United States, which include but are not limited to pregnancy criminalization, attempted bans on medication abortion generally and bans on specific types of medication abortion provision, and criminal indictments of abortion providers, in addition to the interpersonal challenges of raising money towards the cost of the abortion and seeking time off of work and childcare for the abortion appointment itself.

This is a missed opportunity to provide contextual depth to the onerous experience of accessing an abortion in the U.S. in 2025.

Furthermore, ANSIRH complained that some of the storylines involving abortion involved "shame and death," pointing specifically to how religious convictions about abortion were portrayed as a source of doubt or guilt for a character.

"[S]ome shows reinforced the perceived unacceptability of abortion by depicting characters having false pregnancies and convenient miscarriages," the group wrote, later complaining about stories in which characters considered abortion but ultimately chose life. "Though these plotlines might be unremarkable on their own, placed in the context of overall abortion depictions, these storylines suggest that abortion is an outcome to be considered, perhaps, but never willingly chosen."

The Big Picture:

Though ANSIRH is seemingly trying to portray Hollywood as hostile to abortion, this is clearly not the case. The media frequently glamorizes abortion, with celebrities publicly thanking abortion for their lives and careers. Nearly 600 men in Hollywood also openly donated to pro-abortion organizations, and even dating apps have gotten involved, funding pro-abortion films based on sensationalist lies.

Numerous shows, like those in the Shonda Rhimes television universe, positively feature abortion. And while there may be storylines that contain unintentionally pro-life messages, pro-lifers in general are depicted as angry terrorists who perpetuate violence upon pro-abortion heroes who only want to help and protect women.

What is also never acknowledged is the humanity of preborn children killed in abortion.

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The Bottom Line:

Complaining that Hollywood is not pro-abortion enough is simply dishonest. It is based on nothing more than an extremist agenda to see abortion promoted as often as possible, without ever telling the truth about abortion and its real impact on human lives.

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