Medically accurate abortion storylines can help educate and inform viewers “of all political persuasions,” according to a new study from the Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg.
In their paper, “Television Portrayals of Abortion: Impact on Public Knowledge and Mobilization,” researchers surveyed 1,016 adult television viewers of three television episodes featuring depictions of the procedure that were deemed medically valid. Viewers of these storylines were tested for their knowledge of abortion and their interest in taking action after watching 2022 A million little things “Fresh Start” episode, 2022 Better things episode “No, I Won't Tell Him” or 2022 Station 19 episode “The Little Things You Do Together”.
Viewers who were occasional, even one-time viewers of the series and who did not recall the specific abortion episodes in question were surveyed along with those who remembered the content of the specific storylines. Researchers collected demographic information from the participants, including their political leanings. The survey took place in May 2022, before the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in June of that year, ending the constitutional right to abortion.
THE A million little things episode featured a radio announcer giving advice to a mother who was deciding whether to share the news of her abortion with her family. The study authors found that viewers, mostly women, who watched the episode had a greater understanding of the costs of a first-trimester abortion. These viewers, particularly women and politically moderate people, also demonstrated better knowledge of where to send a friend who is seeking an abortion. Male respondents showed a better understanding of medical abortion.
THE Better things episode (which kicked off a multi-episode storyline), meanwhile, depicted a character's daughter denying her mother an abortion. The researchers found that conservative and moderate participants exposed to this storyline demonstrated better knowledge about abortion safety.
THE Station 19 episode featured a character having a medical abortion with the full support of her partner. Viewers of this episode showed a more complete understanding of the prevalence of first-trimester abortions (a trend that was particularly strong for conservative and liberal viewers), while liberal viewers better understood the religious diversity of abortion patients.
In particular, the authors write: “Station 19 was the only one of the three storylines for which viewers took a greater number of actions in support of abortion access” — with viewers of all political stripes more likely to write a social media post about reproductive rights after watching the episode and liberal viewers more likely to comment on a social media post, attend a rally, or join an abortion-related volunteer group.
The paper's findings were unveiled Thursday at an event featuring Dr. Austin Dennard, a Texas obstetrician-gynecologist and clinical associate professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, The girls on the bus showrunner Rina Mimoun, senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project Soraya Giaccardi, and executive director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at UCLA Law Melissa Goodman.
The researchers’ focus on factual depictions of abortion is significant because few studies have specifically delved into the effect of accurate storylines. Indeed, past research on screen depictions of abortion has largely found that the procedure “has often been depicted in overdramatic and inaccurate ways in scripted entertainment,” the USC study authors write. One previous study of television abortion storylines that aired between 2005 and 2016, for example, found that the depictions generally overstated the medical threats posed by the procedure. Another found that between 2015 and 2019, these storylines tended to downplay the number of people of color, low-income people, and parents seeking abortions relative to real-life U.S. patient demographics.
The USC report instead focused on TV episodes that were deemed to contain “accurate medical information about abortion, emotional undertones, and discussions of abortion stigma.” Accurate depictions of the procedure appear to have made a difference. Overall, the study's findings “underscore the power of entertainment media to educate viewers, correct misinformation, and, in some cases, mobilize the public to take action,” the authors say.