“I was close to death!”: abortion and medical risk on American television, 2005–2016

Sisson, Gretchen; Rowland, Brenly

doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2017.03.010

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Such perceptions may stem from abortion portrayals in the media and popular culture. A study of abortion-related storylines in fictional American television shows found a major incident rate of 34% [ 33 ], over 34,000% greater than the real-life major incident rate of 0.1% found here. The long-term consequences of these fictional abortions were much more likely to be severe, including frequent depictions of negative mental health sequelae, infertility, and even death.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 54%

Abortion-related emergency department visits in the United States: An analysis of a national emergency department sample

Upadhyay

Johns

Barron

et al. 2018

BMC Med

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BackgroundMedia depictions and laws passed in state legislatures regulating abortion suggest abortion-related medical emergencies are common. An accurate understanding of abortion-related emergencies is important for informing policy and practice. We assessed the incidence of abortion-related emergency department (ED) visits in the United States (U.S.).MethodsWe used a retrospective observational study design using 2009–2013 data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, a nationally representative sample of U.S. ED visits from 947 to 964 hospitals across the U.S. per year. All ED visits among women of reproductive age (15–49) were included. We categorized ED visits by abortion relatedness and treatments received, and assessed whether the visit was for a major incident (defined as requiring blood transfusion, surgery, or overnight inpatient stay). We estimated the proportion of visits that were abortion-related and described the characteristics of patients making these visits, the diagnoses and subsequent treatments received by these patients, the sociodemographic and hospital characteristics associated with the incidents and observation care only (defined as receiving no treatments), and the rate of major incidents for all abortion patients in the U.S.ResultsAmong all ED visits by women aged 15–49 (189,480,685), 0.01% (n = 27,941) were abortion-related. Of these visits, 51% (95% confidence interval, 95% CI 49.3–51.9%) of the women received observation care only. A total of 20% (95% CI 19.3–21.3%) of abortion-related ED visits were for major incidents. One-fifth (22%, 95% CI 20.9–23.0%) of abortion-related visits resulted in admission to the same hospital for abortion-related reasons. Of the visits, 1.4% (n = 390, 95% CI 1.1–1.7%) were potentially due to attempts at self-induced abortion. In multivariable models, women using Medicaid (adjusted odds ratio, AOR 1.28, 95% CI 1.08–1.52) and women with a comorbid condition (AORs 2.47–4.63) had higher odds of having a major incident than women using private insurance and those without comorbid conditions. During the study period, 0.11% of all abortions in the U.S. resulted in major incidents as seen in EDs.ConclusionsAbortion-related ED visits comprise a small proportion of women’s ED visits. Many abortion-related ED visits may not be indicated or could have been managed at a less costly level of care. Given the low rate of major incidents, perceptions that abortion is unsafe are not based on evidence.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 54%

Abortion-related emergency department visits in the United States: An analysis of a national emergency department sample

Upadhyay

Johns

Barron

et al. 2018

BMC Med

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“…Despite being common in the United States (US), 15 television often depicts abortion in inaccurate ways: exaggerating medical risk, 16 misrepresenting patient demographics, 17 depicting unrealistically few barriers to access, 18 and misrepresenting the medical procedure itself. 19 However, there are examples of abortion stories on television that are accurate, nuanced, and humanizing.…”

Section: Entertainment-education and Abortionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prime‐time abortion on Grey's Anatomy: What do US viewers learn from fictional portrayals of abortion on television?

Sisson

Walter

Herold

et al. 2021

Perspect Sexual Reproductive

Self Cite

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CONTEXT: Entertainment television can impact viewers' knowledge, attitudes, and reproductive health behaviors, yet little research has examined the impact of scripted abortion plotlines on viewers' abortion knowledge or social supportiveness for those having abortions. We examined the impact of an abortion storyline from Grey's Anatomy on US-based viewers. METHOD:We conducted an online survey of likely Grey's Anatomy viewers prior to the episode's airing, assessing abortion ideology, knowledge, and support. After airing, we resurveyed respondents (including both those who had and had not viewed the target episode). We tested three hypotheses: episode exposure would (1) improve abortion knowledge and (2) increase support for medication abortion and decrease support for self-induced abortion, and (3) the effects on knowledge and supportive intention would be moderated by state support for abortion. We used independent samples t tests to examine hypotheses 1 and 2 and PROCESS macro to test the moderated effects (hypothesis 3). RESULTS:The results of the pretest/posttest analysis indicated that exposure to the episode significantly improved medication abortion knowledge. Increases in medication abortion knowledge were tied to explicit educational dialogue and did not translate into an increase in general abortion knowledge or social supportiveness.Notably, abortion-related state policy significantly moderated the influence of exposure for respondents in states with policies favorable to abortion access.CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that entertainment television can contribute to meaningful increases in viewers' knowledge about abortion, but that the potential for impact of entertainment-education is closely linked to episode content and moderated by state-level abortion policy.

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“…This is an absurdly inflated prevalence when safely performed abortions statistically have a mortality rate of zero (Fathalla 2020). In addition, when complications occur in fictional portrayals, they tend to be major, even though this is incredibly rare and complications are mostly minor in real life (Sisson and Rowland 2017).…”

Section: Abortion On Screenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeling better: representing abortion in ‘feminist’ television

Freeman

2021

Culture, Health & Sexuality

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Abortion is a common and safe gynaecological procedure. Yet in film and television it is disproportionately represented as risky, violent, requiring hospitalisation, and affecting young, white, wealthy women. This reinforces stigma, fear and misunderstanding surrounding the procedure. While the majority of television storylines still inaccurately portray abortion, a small minority are directly showing abortion and presenting it as a positive decision. This paper analyses four such storylines in the television shows Sex Education, Shrill, GLOW and Euphoria, as well as media discourse around these plotlines, to understand how contemporary, 'feminist' television shows are representing abortion. The paper argues that contemporary television is increasingly representing abortion in an empathetic way that upholds women's choice to access the procedure, but that these portrayals can be read as post-feminist. Individual choice and empowerment are prioritised in these shows at the expense of showing the complex and unequal power structures that affect how women make reproductive choices. 'Feminist' television still prioritises the abortion storylines of young, white women who face no obstacles to abortion access and so the realities of abortion are still not fully represented on screen.

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“I was close to death!”: abortion and medical risk on American television, 2005–2016

Cited by 11 publications

References 25 publications

Abortion-related emergency department visits in the United States: An analysis of a national emergency department sample

Abortion-related emergency department visits in the United States: An analysis of a national emergency department sample

Prime‐time abortion on Grey's Anatomy: What do US viewers learn from fictional portrayals of abortion on television?

Feeling better: representing abortion in ‘feminist’ television

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