Steph Herold

New article is out! We interviewed 30 patients who had a telehealth abortion. By reducing various logistical hurdles and the potential of stigma at a clinic, telehealth reduces what call structural abortion stigma.

Interesting new research analyzing 111 studies (!!) from 42 countries (!!) exploring experiences w/facility-based abortion care "Emotionally supportive care decreased internalized stigma, increased confidence, & substituted for lack of social support." sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@ABCommunist We have a whole database of these: abortiononscreen.org

Is there a single example of an American TV show with a plot line about a woman struggling with an unwanted pregnancy, who gets an abortion instead of giving birth? If there is, I've never seen it, and it must be less than 1% of all such plot lines.

Lots more context in the article, all open access! I loved writing this paper because I got to focus on the motherhood literature and the television/media literature, plus abortion literature, and tie it all together. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15…

First, the similarities: demographically, parenting & childfree characters are very similar. Mostly white, mostly middle class. Not representative of abortion patients today. But where they differ -- mom characters often anchor their abortion in their experiences of motherhood.

When a TV character has an abortion, they're rarely also parenting children. About 59% of abortion patients are raising kids at the time of their abortion, yet year after year, fewer than 10% of TV's abortion plotlines focus on moms.

Lots of interesting trends in 2024’s TV abortion plotlines, particularly related to race, emotional support, and depictions of barriers to care. Curious what 2025 will bring! 🤓📺

2024 had the most abortion plotlines on TV we’ve ever recorded 📺 Here’s what we found ⬇️

"Despite her pleas for help, the police officer did not believe that the woman was in labor. Later that day, the woman gave birth to a healthy child in a local hospital." homelesslaw.org/shocking-bodyc…

Television this year featured at least 67 abortion plotlines, the highest number recorded since we started tracking plotlines yearly in 2016. Check out this year's Abortion Onscreen report, featuring shows on @StreamOnMax, @netflix, @BravoTV, and more. ansirh.org/research/resea…

Thank you @marinafang for covering our report so thoughtfully! huffpost.com/entry/abortion…

📺 Only 2 depictions of medication abortion this year, very low considering it's the most common form of abortion in the US today

It's here! Our report on depictions of abortion on US television in 2024: 📺 We found at least 67 abortion plotlines, the most since we started tracking in 2016 ansirh.org/research/resea…

@McCoolingtons I'm sure an @ANSIRH scholar can help you out! Let me know if you need an intro.

I'd like to speak to an expert/academic who knows lots about contemporary #feminist movements and activism in the US, particularly related to abortion rights, for a story for Ms. Magazine. Hmu if this is you or someone you know! #Journorequest

@KateRoseBee This also makes me lose my shit. Yes, friendship is “emotional labor.” Isn’t that…the point?? The sociologist who coined the term talked about how divorced it’s become from it’s meaning theatlantic.com/family/archive…

JD Vance once told friends he was open to being a stay-at-home dad and changing his name to Usha’s, Chilukuri. Usha was the superstar who helped mold him. Now she’s at his side to help elect Donald Trump. My profile of Usha Vance: thecut.com/article/usha-v…