How Television Entertainment in the United States During 2025 Treated the Topic of Abortion
American television in 2025 presented abortion storylines with unprecedented frequency—65 separate plotlines appeared across broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms throughout the year. Yet beneath this numerical consistency with 2024 (which featured 66 plotlines), an interesting trend emerged: fewer characters actually obtained abortions, more shows reinforced shame and stigma, and yest entertainment networks increasingly normalized the destruction of innocent human life as routine healthcare rather than the tragedy it represents.
The year revealed a stark divide between how Hollywood depicts abortion and the moral reality of ending a pre-born child’s life. While the entertainment industry presented abortion as empowerment, the data tells a different story—one of lives lost, mothers deceived, and a culture increasingly desensitized to the value of the most vulnerable among us.
Abortion on TV 2025: The Decline in Completed Abortions
According to research from Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California San Francisco, only 37% of abortion storylines in 2025 featured a character who actually obtained an abortion—a significant decline from 51% in 2023 and 42% in 2024. This 14-percentage-point drop since 2023 suggests even Hollywood recognizes the moral weight of showing a child’s life deliberately ended on screen. Or more likely is the fact that Americans do not support abortion and don’t want to watch it depicted lovingly on TV.
The ANSIRH Abortion Onscreen Report 2025 documented this pattern: while conversations about abortion proliferated, actual depictions of the procedure decreased. Five plotlines showed characters who considered abortions but ultimately decided to carry to term, “surprising themselves and their partners.” Other shows employed convenient narrative devices—false pregnancies and timely miscarriages—allowing characters to avoid both motherhood and the moral culpability of abortion.
On Doctor Odyssey and Beyond the Gates, career-focused women discovered they were never actually pregnant, circumventing the abortion dilemma entirely. On Nobody Saw Us Leave, The Witcher, and Love You to Death, characters considered abortion but experienced miscarriages instead, “allowing them to achieve the same outcome as having an abortion without any of the attendant stigma or shame.”
This narrative sleight-of-hand reveals Hollywood’s own discomfort with abortion. Even writers committed to normalizing the procedure recognize that showing a mother choosing to end her child’s life creates moral dissonance viewers cannot easily dismiss.
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Abortion on TV 2025: Shows That Depicted the Procedure
Several high-profile series featured characters who obtained abortions, presenting the destruction of pre-born life with varying degrees of seriousness and moral consideration.
Ginny & Georgia (Netflix)
In the most-watched abortion storyline of 2025, 16-year-old Ginny discovered she was pregnant after a casual encounter. The Netflix series depicted her decision-making process across multiple episodes (Episodes 5-7: “At Least It Can’t Get Worse”, “That’s Wild”, and “Is That a Packed Lunch”) presenting abortion as a straightforward solution to an inconvenient pregnancy.
When Ginny told her mother Georgia about the pregnancy, the show framed the conversation around Ginny’s future potential rather than the life of the child she carried. “You have a bright future ahead,” Georgia told her daughter, reinforcing the false narrative that babies and success are mutually exclusive. Georgia encouraged Ginny to make whatever decision felt “best for her,” never acknowledging the separate human life involved in the decision.
The clinic scene sanitized the reality of abortion. The doctor asked if Ginny wanted more time to decide, and when Ginny confirmed her decision, proceeded with the ultrasound and abortion pills without showing the procedure’s physical or emotional aftermath. The show’s creator Sarah Lampert defended the storyline as “authentically depicting the experiences of teenagers and young women.”
The series presented abortion as a personal choice requiring no moral consideration beyond the mother’s preferences. Ginny’s ex-boyfriend Marcus supported her through the procedure, and her mother arranged everything efficiently. The show’s message was clear: abortion is healthcare, not the ending of an innocent human life. As one pro-life critique summarized, Netflix Show ‘Ginny & Georgia’ Depicts Abortion As Just Another Choice.
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The Pitt (HBO Max)
HBO Max’s medical drama The Pitt featured an abortion storyline spanning multiple episodes that highlighted contemporary legal barriers—but ultimately sided with abortion access over protecting unborn life. The multi-episode arc (Episodes 1-5: “7:00 AM” through “1:00 PM”) followed Kristi, a pregnant teenager seeking a medication abortion.
The storyline revealed systemic manipulation: Dr. Abbott initially measured Kristi’s pregnancy at just over 10 weeks to qualify her for medication abortion. When Dr. Collins discovered Kristi was actually 11 weeks and a few days pregnant—past the legal cutoff—Dr. Robby intervened, performing a third ultrasound and claiming she was “just under 11 weeks” to proceed with the abortion pills.
The show portrayed this falsification of medical records as compassionate patient care rather than what it was: conspiracy to circumvent protective laws designed to safeguard both mother and child. When Kristi’s actual mother arrived (she had told her aunt instead), she initially refused to permit the abortion. The episode presented the mother’s opposition as oppressive rather than protective.
After counseling that emphasized Kristi might “never come back” if forced to continue the pregnancy, the mother relented. Kristi obtained the abortion pills and went home. The show celebrated this outcome as a victory for autonomy, never acknowledging the life ended or the teenager’s need for comprehensive support rather than a quick chemical solution.
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Too Much (Netflix)
Lena Dunham’s semi-autobiographical comedy-drama featured abortion in Episode 5 (“Pink Valentine”). The extended flashback revealed that protagonist Jessica had become pregnant during her relationship with Zev but chose abortion after he responded to her announcement with callous indifference.
When Jessica told Zev she was pregnant and contemplating abortion, he replied dismissively, “Yeah, that’s probably the right idea.” The casual cruelty of his response—treating their child’s life as a problem to be eliminated—drove Jessica to tears, not because she recognized the moral weight of ending a life, but because she felt unloved and abandoned.
The episode depicted Jessica crying through the abortion procedure, but the show never questioned whether ending the pregnancy was the right choice. Instead, it focused entirely on Jessica’s emotional pain over the failed relationship. The abortion became a symbol of romantic disappointment rather than the destruction of a human life.
Mashable noted that Dunham’s portrayal “refrains from casting judgment on Jessica’s choice” and “avoids depicting the procedure as hazardous or excruciating, aside from Jessica’s grief over her breakup.” The episode concluded with Jessica adopting a shelter dog and moving back with her family, treating the abortion as just another life event rather than the deliberate ending of her child’s life.
Adults (FX)
FX’s sitcom Adults featured what critics called a “refreshingly straightforward” abortion storyline in Episode 7 (“Annabelle”). The episode followed a teenager from out of state who traveled to New York City to obtain an abortion due to restrictions in her home state.
Annabelle stayed with the main characters for what one reviewer called an “abortion weekend.” The show presented Annabelle as ungrateful and difficult, expecting more from her “abortion vacation” than the roommates provided. This portrayal attempted to normalize abortion so thoroughly that obtaining one becomes merely a travel inconvenience rather than a life-or-death decision.
Critics praised the show for depicting abortion “without dramatizing the process” and presenting it as a medical procedure that “countless women undergo each year.” Collider’s ranking of Adults episodes highlighted “Annabelle” for its blend of humor and social commentary. The episode’s casual treatment of abortion—reducing it to a logistical problem of interstate travel—represented precisely the kind of moral desensitization that makes the destruction of pre-born life seem unremarkable.
Another review noted that Annabelle “turns out to be especially cruel” to her hosts, suggesting that even supporters of abortion access recognize something troubling about someone so cavalier about ending a life.
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Harlem (Prime Video)
Amazon Prime’s Harlem featured an abortion storyline in Episode 2 (“Fallopian Blues”) that took an unusual approach. The main character Camille discovered she was pregnant after previously being told she had a low chance of conceiving. She wrestled with the decision throughout the episode, ultimately choosing to continue the pregnancy rather than abort.
What made this storyline notable was that Camille’s mother disclosed her own past abortion during their conversation. The show presented this revelation as a bonding moment, normalizing abortion as a common experience rather than the tragedy of a grandmother who chose to end the life of one of her children. Reviews of the season emphasized how the show used Camille’s pregnancy and her mother’s confession to explore generational differences.
By season’s end, Camille gave birth to a daughter she named Harlem. While the show avoided depicting Camille obtaining an abortion, it used her mother’s past abortion to suggest that such decisions are morally neutral—a missed opportunity to acknowledge that every abortion ends an innocent human life.
Power Book III: Raising Kanan (Starz)
The Starz crime drama revealed in its Season 4 premiere that main character Raq had discovered a pregnancy and obtained an abortion during Season 3. The flashback structure meant viewers learned about the abortion after it occurred, eliminating any possibility of seeing Raq wrestle with the moral implications beforehand.
Actress Patina Miller explained that Raq “make[s] the choice to go about something so personal, something so huge, by herself, and not feel any guilt and shame around it.” Miller praised the storyline for showing a “strong woman” who refuses to “feel bad about” her decision to abort.
The show presented Raq’s abortion as evidence of her strength and autonomy. By revealing the abortion retrospectively and emphasizing Raq’s lack of remorse, the series avoided any serious examination of whether ending her child’s life was morally justifiable. The pregnancy was with Unique, who Raq believed was dead—adding melodrama but not moral clarity.
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Abortion on TV 2025: Characters Who Considered but Rejected Abortion
Several shows featured characters who contemplated abortion but ultimately chose life for their children—storylines that deserve recognition for acknowledging the value of unborn life, even if imperfectly.
Mythic Quest (Apple TV+)
Episode 8 (“Second Skeleton”) featured a character considering abortion but ultimately deciding to carry to term. Her partner stated he would support her decision either way, but the character chose life. The show’s refusal to pressure the character toward abortion represented a rare instance of respecting both maternal autonomy and the child’s right to life, as noted in coverage of the season’s themes.
Will Trent (ABC)
The ABC detective series featured a similar storyline across two episodes (“Why Hello, Sheriff” and “Listening to a Heartbeat”) where a character considered abortion. Her partner expressed support regardless of her decision, and she ultimately chose to continue the pregnancy. The show’s title for Episode 2—“Listening to a Heartbeat”—suggested an encounter with the reality of the child’s life through ultrasound, though the episode did not explicitly confirm this.
Matlock (Paramount+)
The reboot of the classic legal drama featured a character considering abortion in Episode 6 (“The Before Times”). Without sensationalizing the decision, the show depicted the character ultimately choosing to continue her pregnancy, suggesting that consideration of abortion need not inevitably lead to the procedure, as noted in the Abortion Onscreen 2025 analysis.
And Just Like That (HBO)
The Sex and the City sequel series included abortion as a joke in Episode 8 (“Better Than Sex”), trivializing both the procedure and the lives it ends. This casual treatment—reducing abortion to comedic material—demonstrated the cultural desensitization HBO has promoted for decades, fitting a pattern highlighted in critic coverage of the series.
Abortion on TV 2025: Shows That Reinforced Shame and Religious Opposition
Multiple 2025 storylines portrayed religious conviction as an obstacle to obtaining abortion rather than as moral clarity about the sanctity of life. The ANSIRH report noted that “several shows portrayed religious opposition to abortion, focusing on characters who were unable to reconcile their Christianity with the possibility of an abortion, even in dire health circumstances.”
Chicago Med (NBC)
The February 19 episode (“Take a Look in the Mirror”) featured Eva, a religious patient who presented with an ectopic pregnancy—a condition where the embryo implants outside the uterus and cannot survive to term. The episode conflated the medical necessity of treating ectopic pregnancy (which is never abortion, as the child cannot survive regardless) with elective abortion.
Eva was sexually assaulted and conceived through rape. When her fiancé learned about both the assault and the necessary medical procedure, the show portrayed him as judgmental for struggling with the revelation. “I will [forgive you]… eventually,” he told Eva, acknowledging the complexity of learning about assault, pregnancy, and medical intervention simultaneously. Recaps such as Celeb Dirty Laundry’s write-up and Sportskeeda’s summary underline how the show framed the conflict.
The episode presented Christianity as incompatible with compassion, suggesting that Eva’s faith made her hesitant to receive necessary medical care. This misrepresentation ignored the consistent pro-life position that ectopic pregnancy treatment is morally distinct from elective abortion, as ectopic pregnancies are never viable and treatment is necessary to save the mother’s life.
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1923 (Paramount+)
Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel depicted a character facing medical complications during pregnancy. The episode (“A Dream and a Memory”) showed religious convictions preventing the character from pursuing what the show framed as a “life-saving abortion.”
The historical setting (1920s Montana) complicated the portrayal, as medical understanding and treatment options differed significantly from contemporary practice. Critics accused Sheridan of promoting a “pro-life message” by showing the character prioritizing her child’s life over convenience—a choice the pro-life movement celebrates as heroic love rather than oppressive religion. This controversy was captured in coverage like “1923 Fans Slam Taylor Sheridan For Promoting ‘Pro-Life Message’ in Series Finale”.
Breathless (Netflix)
This medical drama set in Spain featured religious convictions keeping a character from pursuing what the show described as a potentially “life-saving abortion” in Episode 6 (“Critical Phase”). The show portrayed faith as dangerous rather than protective, ignoring medical advances that allow treatment of pregnancy complications without directly targeting the child for death, a framing noted in the ANSIRH 2025 report.
The Secrets We Keep (Netflix)
Episode 4 featured a character unable to reconcile religious belief with abortion consideration. The show presented faith as an impediment to “autonomy” rather than as wisdom that recognizes the inherent dignity of every human life from conception, again following patterns outlined in the Abortion Onscreen 2025 analysis.
Abortion on TV 2025: Storylines Linking Abortion to Violence and Death
The ANSIRH report noted a disturbing trend: “This year’s plotlines linked abortion and death in new ways.” Rather than depicting unsafe abortion complications (a previous Hollywood trope), 2025 shows featured characters who killed others to conceal abortions or punish abortion coercion.
The Hunting Wives (Netflix)
This thriller series built its central mystery around abortion. The season revealed that Margo had an affair with teenager Brad, became pregnant, and obtained an abortion. When Brad’s girlfriend Abby discovered the affair and abortion, threatening to expose Margo, Margo shot and killed Abby using Sophie’s gun.
The show’s treatment of abortion as a secret worth killing to protect reinforced the stigma surrounding the procedure—but for the wrong reasons. The appropriate shame should stem from recognizing abortion as the unjust killing of an innocent child, not from social embarrassment over violating community norms.
Multiple deaths followed: Abby’s mother Starr shot Margo’s friend Jill after learning about the abortion allegations, and Sophie killed Margo’s brother Kyle when he confronted her about the coverup. By season’s end, four people had died in connection with Margo’s abortion and affair.
Variety interviewed actress Malin Åkerman about the hypocrisy of Margo supporting anti-abortion causes publicly while obtaining an abortion privately. The interviewer noted, “In one episode, Sophie is invited to join a group supporting anti-abortion activists.” Yet neither the show nor its creators acknowledged that pro-life opposition to abortion stems from recognition of the child’s humanity, not from arbitrary social conservatism. Additional breakdowns like Netflix Tudum’s ending explainer and Pajiba’s critique further highlighted how central abortion was to the plot.
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The Couple Next Door (Starz)
Episode 4 (“The Ultimatum”) featured a character who wounded her partner as punishment for attempting to coerce an abortion. The show’s portrayal of abortion coercion as justifying violence added to the year’s troubling pattern of linking abortion with death—though in this case, the violence opposed rather than concealed the abortion, as discussed in segments of the Abortion Onscreen 2025 report.
Happy Face (Paramount+)
This true-crime series about serial killer Keith Jesperson included multiple episodes (Episodes 1, 4, and 5) featuring his daughter Melissa’s abortion following sexual assault. Episode 4 (“Controlled Burn”) revealed that when 15-year-old Melissa told her imprisoned father about the abortion, he responded cruelly: “So you’re a killer, just like me. You deserve to be there in the cell right next to mine.”
The comparison between abortion and serial murder—while intentionally shocking within the show’s narrative—inadvertently acknowledged a moral truth: both involve the deliberate ending of innocent human life. The show attempted to distinguish Melissa’s abortion (framed as justified response to assault) from her father’s murders, but the parallel haunted the character throughout the season.
Episode 4 revealed that Keith weaponized information about Melissa’s abortion, leaking it to the media to shame her publicly. This betrayal demonstrated how abortion secrecy makes women vulnerable to manipulation—a reality ignored by abortion advocates who insist the procedure should carry no stigma. Recaps such as TV Fanatic’s review and Show Snob’s coverage drew attention to this storyline.
Abortion on TV 2025: Networks and Their Stance on Life
Abortion storylines appeared across virtually every major network and streaming platform in 2025, but certain distributors showed particular enthusiasm for normalizing the destruction of pre-born life.
Netflix: The Abortion Streaming Giant
Netflix led all platforms with 15 separate abortion-related storylines across shows including Ginny & Georgia, The Hunting Wives, Too Much, Beyond the Gates, The Snow Girl 2, Love You to Death, The Lady’s Companion, Delirium, The Dead Girls, House of Guinness, Nobody Saw Us Leave, Breathless, Just Alice, The Beast in Me, The Secrets We Keep, and Dabba Cartel.
The streaming giant’s programming consistently portrayed abortion as healthcare rather than the ending of human life. From Ginny & Georgia’s sanitized clinical experience to The Hunting Wives’ violent abortion coverup, Netflix demonstrated sustained commitment to normalizing abortion across multiple genres—teen drama, thriller, comedy, medical drama, and crime series. This pattern is traceable through both the ANSIRH tally and analyses like Human Life Review’s critique of Ginny & Georgia.
This ideological consistency reveals Netflix’s corporate values. When a platform featuring everything from baking competitions to nature documentaries consistently depicts abortion as morally unproblematic, viewers receive a clear message: opposition to abortion is extreme, and ending pre-born life is normal.
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HBO/HBO Max: Premium Abortion Advocacy
HBO and its streaming service HBO Max featured abortion storylines in The Pitt, And Just Like That, All’s Fair, I Love LA, The Seduction, and the documentary The Devil Is Busy. The premium network’s approach combined high-production values with consistent pro-abortion messaging.
The Pitt’s multi-episode abortion arc portrayed doctors falsifying medical records as heroic patient advocacy. And Just Like That reduced abortion to joke material. All’s Fair Episode 4 featured a divorce case centered on a wife’s undisclosed abortion, treating the procedure as a personal choice requiring no spousal consideration. Recaps like Vulture’s “Everybody Dance Now” review and Ready Steady Cut’s analysis highlighted how casually the show treated abortion within its legal-comedy framework.
Most troublingly, HBO Max released The Devil Is Busy, a 31-minute documentary following security operations at an Atlanta abortion clinic. The film portrayed peaceful pro-life protesters as dangerous extremists while celebrating clinic workers as heroes. Social-media promotion such as the Instagram post from the filmmakers and commentary from Christian media like “‘The Devil Is Busy’ and HBO Max’s New Documentary Proves It” underscore how openly the project advocates for abortion access.
The documentary’s title—suggesting Satan himself opposes abortion access—inverted reality. The true spiritual darkness lies not in protecting children but in systematically ending their lives while celebrating that destruction as healthcare.
Paramount+: Mixed Messages
Paramount+ featured abortion content in Happy Face, South Park, and Matlock. South Park’s satirical treatment included Episodes 2, 4, and 5 of Season 27 (“Conflict of Interest,” “Twisted Christian,” and “Unholy Birth”), which depicted President Trump attempting to force Satan to abort the Antichrist through various methods short of medical abortion.
The dark comedy acknowledged abortion’s moral weight even while mocking religious opposition. When Satan noted that Trump “don’t want your followers to be very [upset] if we got an abortion,” the show recognized that pro-life Americans see abortion as morally distinct from other medical procedures—even if South Park treated this conviction as absurdly superstitious. Reviews like Slate’s critique of Season 27, Episode 5 and reporting on conservative reactions such as “Charlie Kirk says South Park anti-abortion argument is ‘not bad'” highlighted how central abortion was to the plot.
Hulu: Normalizing Abortion Through Prestige Drama
Hulu featured abortion storylines in Doctor Odyssey, Family Guy, Unmasked, All’s Fair, and archived documentary content. The platform’s approach emphasized sophisticated storytelling that presented abortion as a thoughtful personal choice rather than the ending of human life.
All’s Fair Episode 4 (“Everybody Dance Now”) exemplified this approach. The show featured a high-powered attorney discovering her client had concealed an abortion from her husband during marriage, treating this as potential grounds for “emotional cruelty” claims in divorce court. The episode used the abortion revelation to explore power dynamics and gender conflict while never acknowledging the life ended. Vulture’s recap and Yahoo’s coverage of the episode illustrate the critical framing.
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Abortion on TV 2025: Demographic Patterns and Missing Realities
The ANSIRH Abortion Onscreen Report revealed that television abortion depictions diverge significantly from reality in multiple ways:
Socioeconomic Status: On television, 80% of characters seeking abortions are middle class or wealthy. In reality, most abortion patients struggle financially. This discrepancy obscures how poverty and lack of support drive abortion decisions—and how comprehensive assistance to mothers could save lives. These statistics are drawn from the Abortion Onscreen 2025 findings.
Parenting Status: Only 8% of television characters obtaining abortions are already parents. In reality, the majority of abortion patients are mothers. Television ignores how financial pressure, lack of childcare, and inadequate social support push mothers toward ending subsequent pregnancies, a gap noted explicitly in the ANSIRH report.
Reasons for Abortion: More than half of 2025 plotlines (60%) provided no context for abortion decisions. When shows did explain motivations, they most frequently cited age (too young to parent) or relationship issues (infidelity, unstable partnerships). Real-life research shows the most common reasons include financial concerns, poorly-timed pregnancies, and need to care for existing children—all circumstances where practical support could provide alternatives to abortion. This disconnect is highlighted in both the (https://www.ansirh.org/research/research/abortion-onscreen-2025) and earlier Abortion Onscreen reports.
Barriers to Abortion: Only one-third of storylines depicted barriers to abortion access. Nearly all historical barriers were set outside the United States (Call the Midwife, The Dead Girls, House of Guinness). Contemporary American barriers shown included parental consent requirements (Days of Our Lives, The Pitt), travel considerations (Family Guy, Adults, Will Trent), and total abortion bans (The Hunting Wives, South Park).
Missing from virtually all storylines: the reality that abortion ends a living human being with unique DNA, a beating heart by six weeks, measurable brain activity, and the biological characteristics of Homo sapiens from conception forward.
Abortion on TV 2025: The Medication Abortion Gap
Only three plotlines included depictions of medication abortion—the pills that cause the mother’s body to expel the developing child through cramping and bleeding. This near-absence is striking given that medication abortion now accounts for the majority of abortions nationwide, a reality frequently noted in policy discussions and hinted at in the Abortion Onscreen 2025 report.
The Pitt showed teenage Kristi receiving abortion pills, though the episode ended as she prepared to take them rather than showing the hours of cramping, bleeding, and tissue expulsion that follow. One other storyline portrayed a character ordering abortion pills online because she could not afford in-person care—a dangerous practice that abortion advocates nevertheless defend as “self-managed abortion.”
Television’s reluctance to show medication abortion’s physical reality reveals an unwillingness to confront what the procedure actually involves: the mother’s body forcibly expelling her child, often visible in the expelled tissue, sometimes requiring emergency intervention when the abortion is incomplete or complications arise.
The industry’s sanitized approach suggests even pro-abortion creators recognize that showing abortion’s physical reality might provoke moral reconsideration among viewers.
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Abortion on TV 2025: The Support Gap
Less than one-quarter (18%) of abortion storylines in 2025 showed characters receiving emotional support before, during, or after their abortions—down from approximately one-third in 2024. Shows including Too Much, Just Alice, and The Snow Girl 2 portrayed abortion as a “solitary, isolating experience,” reinforcing stigmatizing narratives that women must face this decision alone, as documented in the Abortion Onscreen 2025 data.
In contrast, shows that did depict support—The Pitt, Ginny & Georgia, Adults, and Harlem—featured family members or friends accompanying characters through the abortion process. These storylines suggested that with adequate support, women can confidently choose abortion without guilt or shame.
This framing ignores a crucial distinction: supporting a woman does not require supporting her decision to end her child’s life. True support involves walking alongside mothers through difficulty while protecting both mother and child—the model offered by pregnancy resource centers that the entertainment industry consistently ignores or demonizes. That gap between Hollywood depiction and pro-life reality is a major theme in cultural critiques like New America’s “Putting Pregnancy, Abortion, and Care into Context on Screen”.
Approximately one-third of plotlines showcased lack of support through partners pressuring abortion, family members opposing the pregnant woman’s choices, or characters experiencing abortion entirely alone. The remaining majority (53%) provided no context about support systems at all.
Abortion on TV 2025: Reality Shows and Documentaries
Beyond scripted content, reality television and documentaries addressed abortion in 2025:
Real Housewives of Atlanta featured cast member Brit Eady weaponizing fellow housewife Kelli Ferrell’s past abortion during an argument, telling Ferrell to “talk about those abortions you had when you were married.” The June 22 episode (“Chicken and Waffles”) sparked controversy for using abortion as ammunition in a personal conflict—simultaneously reinforcing abortion stigma while treating the procedure as unremarkable enough for reality TV drama. Coverage like “Brit Eady Was Wrong To Use Abortion Against Kelli Ferrell on RHOA” and “Brit Eady Attempts To Shame Kelli Ferrell For Having An Abortion” examined the fallout.
Love is Blind included abortion discussions across multiple episodes as contestants shared their perspectives on reproductive choices. Married to Medicine and W.A.G.s to Riches similarly featured abortion as topic material rather than plotline focus, patterns noted in the 2025 Abortion Onscreen tally.
The Devil Is Busy (HBO Max) offered the most explicitly pro-abortion documentary content, spending 31 minutes portraying clinic workers as heroes and peaceful pro-life advocates as threatening extremists. The film’s ideological agenda was transparent: abortion is healthcare, opposition is harassment, and Christians who pray outside clinics create dangerous “high-stress situations” requiring security responses, as celebrated in promotional posts like this Instagram reel and critiqued in pieces such as “‘The Devil Is Busy’ and HBO Max’s New Documentary Proves It”.
Abortion on TV 2025: The Cultural Impact and Pro-Life Response
Television shapes culture by normalizing behaviors and values through repeated exposure. When 65 abortion storylines appear across one year’s entertainment programming, viewers receive consistent messaging that abortion is normal, acceptable, and morally uncomplicated.
Research from ANSIRH—an organization that advocates for expanded abortion access—shows that television depictions influence public opinion about abortion. When shows present abortion as empowering choice rather than tragic loss, support for abortion rights increases. When religious opposition is portrayed as extremism rather than moral clarity, faith-based pro-life witness is discredited. This influence is explicitly discussed in academic and advocacy work like “Putting Pregnancy, Abortion, and Care into Context on Screen” and ANSIRH’s own Abortion Onscreen 2025.
The 2025 television landscape revealed entertainment industry commitment to abortion normalization that far exceeds any comparable commitment to depicting abortion alternatives. Not a single major storyline featured a crisis pregnancy center, despite these organizations serving millions of women annually. No show depicted the comprehensive support model that provides ultrasounds, material assistance, parenting classes, adoption information, and ongoing relationship that empowers women to choose life.
Instead, television consistently presented a false binary: abortion or devastating life disruption. Characters who chose life “surprised themselves and their partners,” as if choosing not to kill one’s child is unexpected. Convenient miscarriages allowed characters to avoid both motherhood and abortion guilt—as if the two outcomes are morally equivalent.
This systematic erasure of life-affirming alternatives reveals the entertainment industry’s ideological agenda. When Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and other platforms collectively feature dozens of abortion storylines but virtually no pregnancy center portrayals, they are not reflecting reality. They are shaping it.
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Conclusion: Countering the Culture of Death
American television in 2025 demonstrated sustained commitment to normalizing abortion as healthcare rather than recognizing it as the destruction of innocent human life. From Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia sanitizing the clinical experience for teenage viewers to HBO’s The Devil Is Busy portraying pro-life witnesses as extremists, the entertainment industry consistently championed abortion access while erasing alternatives.
Yet beneath the pro-abortion messaging, contradictions emerged. Fewer characters obtained abortions despite more storylines addressing the topic. Writers employed false pregnancies and convenient miscarriages to avoid depicting abortion’s finality. Even shows celebrating abortion “autonomy” revealed discomfort with showing the procedure’s physical reality or long-term consequences.
These contradictions suggest that even Hollywood recognizes what the pro-life movement has always known: abortion is not healthcare. It is the deliberate ending of a developing human life—a life with unique DNA, a beating heart, brain activity, and the biological characteristics of Homo sapiens from conception forward, realities laid out clearly in pro-life scientific analyses and echoed in critiques like “More TV shows should portray Christians as being ok with abortion” which unintentionally concede that Christian opposition is grounded in belief in the child’s humanity.
Christians and pro-life Americans must respond to Hollywood’s abortion normalization with both truth and love. We must speak clearly about what abortion is: the unjust killing of innocent children. We must support mothers comprehensively, providing the practical assistance that makes choosing life feasible. And we must align our financial decisions with our values, refusing to fund through consumer choices the very industry working to normalize the destruction of pre-born life.
Organizations like Pro-Life Payments offer one pathway to embodying these convictions. By processing payments through systems that donate 15% of revenue from net processing fees to pregnancy resource centers and life-affirming organizations, businesses and ministries can transform unavoidable processing fees into sustainable funding for the pro-life movement. Every transaction becomes a small but tangible defense of innocent life—a practical rebuke to the culture of death that 2025’s television programming worked so aggressively to normalize.
The battle for hearts and minds continues. Television’s 65 abortion storylines in 2025 represent 65 attempts to convince viewers that ending pre-born life is normal, acceptable, and morally uncomplicated. The pro-life response must be 65 million acts of witness, support, and practical love—demonstrating that every life matters and that women deserve better than abortion.