Earlier this week, The New York Times reported on a TV trend: The rise in 2019 of storylines involving “matter-of-fact” abortions, on such shows as Hulu’s Shrill, HBO’s Veep, Netflix’s GLOW and Fox’s Empire, to name but a few. Whether or not the characters who had abortions on those shows were "matter-of-fact" about it is certainly up for debate. TV characters have been getting abortions since the ‘70s, and from what I recall not without much soul-searching. Regardless, the point of the Times story is taken: On television today abortion is sometimes presented as an inconvenient procedure, rather than something more intense, to put it in the simplest terms. Is this realistic storytelling? That depends on whom you ask.
TV Continues to Grapple with Abortion
