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Television story lines are often more dramatic, bizarre and fantastical than real life – and abortion story lines are no exception. In a new study, UCSF Bixby Center researchers examine how women who seek abortions are portrayed on TV.

Characters on television who consider or obtain abortions don't reflect the demographics of American women who choose them or their reasons for doing so, according to a recent analysis from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.

While one in three American women will have an abortion at some point in their lives, it’s rare to see this common reality portrayed on television. And when characters do talk openly about abortion, a new study finds, those characters are more likely to be white, under the age of 20, and childless.

A new study looking at television portrayals of abortion found that fictional abortion patients are overwhelmingly younger, wealthier, and whiter than abortion patients in real life. “That’s true of everything on TV,” you could argue, correctly, but the authors point out it could contribute to public misunderstanding of the procedure.

 A new study suggests that experts on long-acting contraception hear reproductive-justice advocates loud and clear.

When it comes to the storylines you’ve come to expect from network television, abortion probably isn’t high on the list. It’s a topic that’s often considered too political or controversial for casual entertainment. But in 2015, some popular TV shows started to change that.

A paper University of California, San Francisco sociologists Gretchen Sisson and Katrina Kimport are publishing in a forthcoming issue of the academic journal Contraception sheds new light on which fictional women have abortions on television shows and the reasons they have the procedure.

A new study suggests that abortion access allows women to have "aspirational" one-year plans.

As the year comes to an end, the UCSF Bixby Center is proud to celebrate our contributions to global reproductive health. While we are proud of our accomplishments, reproductive health care is literally under attack in the US and abroad, and we can do so much more. We need your support to ensure that all people have the power to manage their reproductive health with dignity.

Abortion is good for you as an individual and it’s good for society as a whole—simply having the treatment option available for those who can get pregnant increases positivity and the ability to make and achieve goals.