--- title: What Americans' Complex Views on Abortion Mean for Its Future description: Despite public rhetoric, questions about preferences regarding abortion access and regulation are hard to answer for many Americans. canonical: https://time.com/6207118/americans-complex-views-on-abortion/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-08-20T11:00:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:38:42.221Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What Americans' Complex Views on Abortion Mean for Its Legal Future og:description: Despite public rhetoric, questions about preferences regarding abortion access and regulation are hard to answer for many Americans. og:url: https://time.com/6207118/americans-complex-views-on-abortion/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82e8595702710899/698a34c8e6e84a2d0a2af388/GettyImages-1242276496.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-NEWS-KAN-ABORTION-KC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Americans' Complex Views on Abortion Mean for Its Legal Future twitter:description: Despite public rhetoric, questions about preferences regarding abortion access and regulation are hard to answer for many Americans. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82e8595702710899/698a34c8e6e84a2d0a2af388/GettyImages-1242276496.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Americans' Complex Views on Abortion Mean for Its Legal Future > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=f417e2e9-4bfc-4dda-bc9d-260798296c6b&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A History of How Abortion is Shown in Film and Television [Watch (HLS stream): A History of How Abortion is Shown in Film and Television](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Ca77dTts.m3u8) (8:41)  _Published 2022-07-05. TIME explores abortion and how it's covered across media; from films that tell cautionary tales and depict the procedure as life-upending to more compassionate pieces that portray the varied experiences of women._ by [Tricia C. Bruce](https://time.com/author/tricia-c-bruce/) ## Tricia C. Bruce Aug 20, 2022 11:00 AM UTC TIME explores abortion and how it's covered across media; from films that tell cautionary tales and depict the procedure as life-upending to more compassionate pieces that portray the varied experiences of women. by [Tricia C. Bruce](https://time.com/author/tricia-c-bruce/) ## Tricia C. Bruce Aug 20, 2022 11:00 AM UTC The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has ushered in complicated and tense conversations at the state level about where and how to draw “the line” on abortion. Voting results out of [Kansas](https://time.com/6203178/kansas-abortion-vote-results-takeaways/) suggest that outcomes may defy expectations and evoke gradation far beyond that of a typical partisan issue. Prompted by [polling](https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx) that consistently shows ambivalence among the American public (legal support for abortion some but not all of the time), [my team of sociologists interviewed hundreds](https://news.nd.edu/assets/395804/how%5Famericans%5Funderstand%5Fabortion%5Ffinal%5F7%5F15%5F20.pdf) in 2019 to better understand how ordinary Americans think through this issue. Despite public rhetoric otherwise, questions about preferences regarding abortion access and regulation are hard to answer for many Americans. Few give well-rehearsed position statements (“That’s a hard one for me to answer”). Most have limited to no familiarity with abortion laws in their state (“I could not tell you that I know them; I won’t pretend like I do”). Most bring scant medical expertise (“I’m no doctor”). Few talk about abortion in-depth with others (“I’m not one to seek out controversial conversations”). But it’s to precisely this morass that the current legislative moment in America brings us, redistributed to millions as an issue for the ballot box. We learned that there are some conditions that generate fairly widespread levels of support for legal abortion. Severe health risk to a pregnant woman, for example, made for an “obvious” justification among interviewees who lean toward abortion legality (“It’s clear that women should not be asked to give up their lives for a baby to be born”) and a more reluctant but common (or “only”) exception among those who lean toward abortion restriction (“The doctor says, ‘It’s you or the baby’”; “That’s something that you go and you get special permission for”). [Polling by the Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/06/americas-abortion-quandary/) indicates that nearly three quarters of all Americans support legal abortion in such a circumstance, though it’s [clinicians who must navigate what qualifies](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/03/1109483662/doctors-werent-considered-in-dobbs-but-now-theyre-on-abortions-legal-front-lines). It’s “self-defense,” said our interviewees; “You have the right to do anything you need to do to protect yourself.” The minority of Americans unwilling to consider legality even amid threats to a mother’s life and health ([11 percent, according to Pew](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/06/americas-abortion-quandary/)) gave us explanations including: “The health of the mother is something that should be taken into account when first engaging in sexual actions”; “That’s why bedrest was invented”; “Nobody can tell me of an issue with current technology where that’s really a problem”; “A woman that loves that baby is not going to want to abort”; and “It’s up to God.” Mental health risks elicit lower overall support for legal abortion. “Everyone could say their children are giving them mental health issues, so I’m not gonna buy that one.” Most Americans’ “line” extends also to situations posing a strong chance for a baby’s severe disability or health problem ([53 percent among Americans nationally](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/06/americas-abortion-quandary/)), but interpretations vary widely. Interviewees’ more resolute responses in support of legal abortion cite examples such as paralysis, the need for 24-hour-care, or “where the baby might only live one or two days.” Things like “blindness,” a “cleft lip,” a “missing limb,” or the “pandora’s box” of potential fetal anomalies, as one interviewee put it, garner less support for legal abortion. Responses touch upon the inherent dignity and value of life, meaning of disability, dependency, and quality of life for both an impacted child and caregiver. Sorting out legality on this front, in other words, means sorting through Americans’ commitments to who is “wanted,” cared for, how much “suffering” is okay, who pays, and who decides what is “best.” Legal abortion amid such questions gets categorized by some as “mercy”; by others, as a “slippery slope” leading to “genetically engineered perfect people.” And it only gets more convoluted from there. Our Republican interviewees were less likely than others to say that rape warrants legal access to abortion, echoing [national polling](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/06/americas-abortion-quandary/) that shows the same. A pregnancy from rape is a “tough one” and “hard,” these interviewees told us, but an abortion is “selfish” when “it’s not the child’s fault” and “we don’t know what that child is bringing to the world.” Some fear that rape allegations may become an “excuse” to gain abortion access. Unlike health-related circumstances that give rise to exceptions among those who oppose abortion otherwise, a pregnancy from rape promises a ready alternative: “Somebody is waiting in line to be able to have the privilege of adopting that child.” A handful of Republican dads confessed that they might make an exception “if that were my daughter.” Many of our Democrat interviewees paired their inclination toward legality with misgivings about abortions that occur late in a pregnancy for reasons unrelated to health. “The earlier, the better.” “That third trimester is really difficult for me.” “I think it should be done at an early stage if it’s done at all.” As captured by [national polling](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/06/americas-abortion-quandary/), the majority of Americans who support legal abortion also support restricting legality by how long a woman has been pregnant. This includes half of Democrats, a majority of whom do not favor legal abortion past 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Interviewees alluded to emotional ties developed through their own pregnancies and reacted with visceral disdain to the idea of a non-medically compelled “late” abortion. “If a child is able to be born premature and they have a chance to survive outside the womb, then I don’t agree with abortion.” There’s also a subtle and harder-to-legislate sentiment among Americans across the board that abortion shouldn’t be the “default” option, taken lightly, or used as “contraception.” “I would hope it wouldn’t be like taking a Tylenol”; “I would hate to see a woman abusing abortion to get out of a situation.” [While finances are common among reasons abortion patients themselves give for terminating a pregnancy](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1472-6874-13-29), almost half of our interviewees disagreed with legal abortion driven by economic need. Money “shouldn’t be a reason” not to have a child; “I was poor and I had kids”; “We do have a welfare system.” Interviewees were nearly divided in their support for legal abortion for a married woman who doesn’t want more children, often interpreting this use of abortion as a form of “birth control” when “there are all kinds of ways to avoid pregnancy these days.” [National polling](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/05/06/americas-abortion-quandary/) shows similarly that a majority of Americans hold some concern that “easy” access to legal abortion will make people less “careful” with sex and contraception. **_Read More:_** [**_When Is An Abortion Lifesaving? It’s Not Always Clear_**](https://time.com/6194397/abortions-lifesaving-ectopic-pregnancy/) Everyday Americans vacillate between what feels “right” and “wrong” when it comes to abortion, what makes for “good” or “bad” reasons for it, and whether it is even their place to ask, know, or say so. The law offers a clumsy means to assess and adjudicate among “reasons” for an abortion—while that’s just how ordinary Americans tend to think through the issue. Medical expertise comes second to moral evaluations of strangers’ hypothetical situations. What makes it so difficult to negotiate fifty state policies, in other words, is the inherent overlap and clash of values surrounding abortion. Most Americans treat abortion as a moral issue touching upon visceral, if underexplored, core values. Not all see the law as the rightful place to sort out these kinds of feelings—or don’t know precisely how to authorize it to do so. “I hate to see \[abortion\] used almost thoughtlessly, but I’m scared to limit its availability because I think it’s too big of a decision for other people to make.” While most Americans don’t really know much about abortion law or precisely where to draw “the line,” they may find themselves reflecting upon it now, more than ever. The politics of abortion in America today, however, suggests limited capacity for deep research and thoughtful discernment on an issue that has flummoxed the nation for generations. ## Transcript Hey, I'm just a big show generations of filmmakers have to pick that the issue of abortion from stories about a legal procedures to perfectly legal and uneventful abortions and even the abortion pill. So following the Supreme Court decision to strike down row. How will a new reality in America begin to make its way onto screens pressure. Goes? Abortion in Phil is not new. Perhaps the earliest example, is the 1916 movie, where are my children in this film? Based on the trial of Planned Parenthood? Founder Margaret Sanger a lawyer Prosecuting, an illegal provider, finds out that his own wife has had multiple abortions, which is rendered her infertile the movie simultaneously. Argues a racist and eugenic point that birth control is important for someone. But that wealthy women who choose abortion or selfish early films, often told cautionary tales depicting. The procedure is traumatic and life up ending, but over the years storylines and movies have begun to evolve to become more compassionate and certainly more accurately display, the varied experiences of women and the realities of abortion. Let me local, okay. My experience with abortions on film is like in European films that scarred me for life, you know, just, you know, like the the did truly the backroom abortion scene work together on the film. Saint Francis, the movie follows a nanny and juxtaposes her taking care of a child during the day while just making the decision to terminate her own pregnancy. A lot of what I had an abortion when I was in my early thirties and all of the TV and install might seem that had to picked it up, orschlens made it seem really scary. And when I went through the actual process I felt relieved. I found the process to be while complicated actually pretty simple. And so I really wanted to show, you know, quote-unquote normal abortion isn't surrounded by traumatic events and that doesn't involve a lot of hand-wringing and doubt and regret but a woman knowing immediately or person know immediately but it wasn't the right time. Today, I found some clothes with fresh blood on them and I just was second, try to hurt herself or her mind. no, I had an abortion, a couple of months ago and I've been bleeding off and on ever since then that's too much. I feel like in must he be in thong. We've seen the woman really spend a lot of time questioning her decision and I'm sure that happens to many women in real life, but it has been a pretty monolithic exploration of doubt in terms of abortion as so. I wanted to show the other version which is I'm pregnant. I'm not going to have this baby because I don't think that either the lack of doubt, the lack of regret. Shonda Rhimes has just been like a complete game-changer for how we portray abortion on network television. Start making decisions about and talking about why it was important to her to be abortion provider and actually the first and then the second show to actually show the full of working procedure on screen and had intentions of managed abortion and see her absolute commitment to this type of Storytelling has I think really open doors for a lot of other writers and content creators who want to include that on network TV. Should be here. I should not be here. Walk down the street in and open the door and Waltz right in and say hello. My name is Veronica, my boyfriend is an asshole. Here's my $500. Elf, I already been on that journey of trying to normalize my own abortion and then this this book came to me and it felt like a perfect way to take the next step and really get to share my perspective, my heart, Rachel Lee Goldberg is the director of unpregnant her film details. The Adventures of a 17 year, old pregnant teen and ex-best friend as they travel from Missouri to New Mexico, to get an abortion idea of of this, not having to be a sad thing and it can just be something with the Central and something that happens is, is really, is, is important, is a perspective, it's real, it's a comedy, but the comedy in the, in the film largely comes from making fun of the journey. And that's, you know, that's how I feel very confident in saying that it's bullshit that these people have to travel this far, to get a procedure. A medical procedure unpregnant was made in 2020, but following the Supreme Court's decision in 2020 to abortions in Missouri are now permitted. Alien cases of medical emergency, there are no exceptions for rape or incest under the law. Abortion is still legal in New Mexico, which is readying to become a destination for women. Seeking care depictions of a board come a long way since the infancy of Hollywood and the institution of the Hays code in 1930, the Hays code was the system of self-censorship for filmed, requiring movies to be wholesome and more. If the character had an abortion in the movie, The Hays code required that they'd meet an unhappy ending, usually characters died, or abandon or ultimately chose not to have an abortion. The Hays code officially ended in 1968. Paving the way for more diverse coverage of abortion. Dirty Dancing continues to be one of my favorite abortion stories, that that is an American film. I just love it because I love it. That the whole plot of the movie is only propelled by tiniest friends, desire to help her, some help support her get an abortion, right? To help pay for the abortion. Help. Cover her day off of work and to help her see that abortion turns out to be dangerous and ends really support or network is really the driving force for the whole film. Is the battle to secure Reproductive Rights ramps up, and individual states. The role that films and TV can play in the battle for public opinion, may be more essential than ever to what comes next. I think, demystifying the process. I didn't know before I went and got a medication abortion, that that was even possible. I assumed it was going to be Surgical and so I think they're probably still a lot of people out there who don't know exactly what an abortion might entail for them. And we wanted to show the process of putting the pills in your cheek and let him know to dissolve and then you might get sick and and the recovery process so that people can feel seen before and the people who might want to see the horses in the future, don't feel scared of speaking for myself. I'm already on to my next for some project deep deep in abortion project number to right now. So you know I'm hoping that other people will be compelled to do the same you know, as as artists and filmmakers are people in Media. More and more specific stories, which I think is the trend that were seeing already. But I hope this lights of fire and, you know, maybe those storytellers who have stories to tell their sugar burning inside. You're compelled to tell them now, we're already seeing it, but I'm I'm, I'm excited for that next stage of of stories to be told. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6207118/americans-complex-views-on-abortion/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6207118/americans-complex-views-on-abortion/"},"headline":"What Americans' Complex Views on Abortion Mean for Its Legal Future","datePublished":"2022-08-20T11:00:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T09:38:42.221Z","description":"Despite public rhetoric, questions about preferences regarding abortion access and regulation are hard to answer for many Americans.","url":"https://time.com/6207118/americans-complex-views-on-abortion/","keywords":["abortion","freelance"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82e8595702710899/698a34c8e6e84a2d0a2af388/GettyImages-1242276496.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tricia C. 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