History Main / AbortionFalloutDrama

* In ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'', Kay, during her confrontation with Michael in which she tells him that she is leaving him and taking their children, reveals to him that the "miscarriage" that she had was actually an abortion. She was going to give birth to a son, which she did not want because she has come to ''hate'' the mafia world that Michael lives in and all that it represents, and does not want her children getting caught up in it and being corrupted or destroyed. Michael, needless to say, does ''not'' take this well -- it is one of the very few times Michael raises his voice or gets visibly angry.

* In ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'', Kay, during her confrontation with Michael in which she tells him that she is leaving him and taking their children, reveals to him that the "miscarriage" that she had was actually an abortion. She was going to give birth to a son, which she did not want because she has come to ''hate'' the mafia world that Michael lives in and all that it represents, and does not want her children getting caught up in it and being corrupted or destroyed. Michael, needless to say, does ''not'' take this well.

* In ''Theatre/ARaisinInTheSun'', Ruth discovers that she is pregnant toward the middle of the first act. She goes to a doctor to check on the situation, but her mother-in-law Lena becomes suspicious when Ruth inadvertently uses female pronouns to describe who she saw. It turns out that she's actually trying to arrange an illegal abortion ("I gave her a five-dollar down payment") because she knows that the family's already-precarious financial and living situation simply won't allow for another child. [[spoiler: It's ultimately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], though, as Ruth, encouraged by the positive changes Mama and her husband Walter make, decides to hold onto hope and see the pregnancy through.]]

* [[Music/HouseOfPain Everlast's]] single "What It's Like" dedicates the entire second verse of the song to sympathetically portraying a woman who chooses to get an abortion after the man bails on her, and the Christian protestors who spew their hatred at her as she approaches the clinic just because the scenario exists.
-->And then she heads for the clinic and she gets some static walking through the door\\
They call her a killer, and they call her a sinner and they call her a whore\\
God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in her shoes\\
'Cause then you really might know what it's like to have to choose

* In a Russian teen TV series ''Kadetstvo'', a Good Girl ponders over the option of abortion, decides to go through with it and sticks to that decision. Her boyfriend objects to that, and she promptly breaks up with him.
* ''Literature/TheKitchenGodsWife'':
** A servant girl whom Wen Fu brutally raped dies trying to induce an abortion, and she is portrayed sympathetically and tragically.
** Winnie herself induces several abortions after Wen Fu falls off the deep end and abuses his MaritalRapeLicense for all it's worth. [[OffingTheOffspring Considering his hand in their daughter Yiku's death]], she considers it a pre-emptive MercyKill.

* One ''ComicBook/BitchyBitch'' is about how Midge got pregnant as a teenager in the sixties and had to beg, borrow and steal to have a back-alley abortion that she had to hide from her parents. The whole thing is portrayed absolutely horrifically, but an AuthorAvatar [[AuthorOnBoard steps in to explain]] that Midge was still lucky, comparatively speaking, because getting an abortion in her time and place could have gone much, much worse.

* In the movie ''Detective Story'', Kirk Douglas plays Jim [=McLeod=], a police officer with a jones to bust an abortionist (when, being in the '50s, abortion is a criminal offense). The doctor assumes [=McLeod=] is out to get him because the doc once performed an abortion of Mrs. [=McLeod=]. Not so! [=McLeod=] didn't know about that at all. When [=McLeod=] finds out, he's more upset because his wife had the abortion before they met. In an example of extreme ValuesDissonance, the head of the Hays Commission tried to rain down hellfire on the film, saying that abortion was such an evil that you couldn't even discuss it in a film, even if you were portraying it in a fairly negative fashion.

This trope is most prevalent in the West, where abortion is still a sensitive topic, as many Christian denominations teach against it. As such, these plots may be used to deliver AnAesop about the controversy in a VerySpecialEpisode. Anti-abortion stories will have the person getting the abortion be a villain or "bad girl" who suffers an {{Anvilicious}} death or a HeelFaithTurn. Conversely, pro-choice stories will blame society for the protagonist's woes, and use the story to soapbox about the evils of organized religion or abortion restrictions ([[ActivistFundamentalistAntics abortion clinic protestors]] are a common antagonist here). As this is a touchy subject, there's room for plenty of nuance in between. Due to the potential for controversy, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease'''.

* ''Film/LittleWoods'' concerns Ollie's sister Deb choosing to get an abortion due to being too poor to raise a second child. Unfortunately, she doesn't have an ID, and the two sisters have to risk a trip across the US-Canadian border to meet with thieves who will make her one, but they turn out to be very shady folks. [[spoiler:Ultimately Deb has to settle for trying to mimic the picture on a stolen ID. The clinic's secretary spots the ruse, but pretends not to notice, allowing Deb to get the abortion.]]

* ''Series/{{Jessica Jones|2015}}'': Hope Schlottman is the ''epitome'' of the good girl archetype but adamantly refuses to give birth to a [[ChildByRape child by Kilgrave]], and pays her cellmate to beat her up so she will miscarry. When that does not work, Jessica helps her procure abortion pills, and after she physically recovers from the experience she's shown to stand by her decision not to go through with the pregnancy. Considering that in the comics, all of Kilgrave's children inherited his MindRape powers, this was probably the best course of action....

This trope is most prevalent in the West, where abortion is still a sensitive topic, as most Christian denominations teach against it. As such, these plots may be used to deliver AnAesop about the controversy in a VerySpecialEpisode. Anti-abortion stories will have the person getting the abortion be a villain or "bad girl" who suffers an {{Anvilicious}} death or a HeelFaithTurn. Conversely, pro-choice stories will blame society for the protagonist's woes, and use the story to soapbox about the evils of [[ReligionOfEvil organized religion]] or abortion restrictions ([[ActivistFundamentalistAntics abortion clinic protestors]] are a common antagonist here). As this is a touchy subject, there's room for plenty of nuance in between. Due to the potential for controversy, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease'''.

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheBarsoomProject'' has a female character who (in the backstory) had attracted too much male attention at a young age, and ended up getting an abortion. The procedure left her sterile and caused her to gain a large amount of weight as a 'shield' against men. Her character arc involves forgiving herself for this.

* In the 2003 ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' series there is an episode where a girl who wants to have an abortion. But her parents won't let her, and the religious beliefs of the colony she was from before the Cylon attack forbade it despite its legality. Though pro-choice herself, President Roslin understands that there are less than fifty thousand humans left in the ''universe'', and that they will have to grow their numbers if they're to survive as a species. In the end, she outlaws abortion via executive order... after the girl has had her abortion and has applied for asylum aboard ''Galactica'' so she doesn't have to go back to her parents. Baltar, who's running against her for the position of President, immediately seizes on this and makes his campaign pro-choice on the grounds that humanity can't afford to sign away its rights.

** Invoked: Tracy - MagnificentBitch extraordinaire - pretends she's pregnant and that she aborted the child in order to get sympathy from her boyfriend, who wasn't letting her actual daughter live with them. Her mother is at first horrified that she got an abortion, and later horrified that Tracy would fake such a thing.

* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': Hope Schlottman is the ''epitome'' of the good girl archetype but adamantly refuses to give birth to a [[ChildByRape child by Kilgrave]], and pays her cellmate to beat her up so she will miscarry. When that does not work, Jessica helps her procure abortion pills, and after she physically recovers from the experience she's shown to stand by her decision not to go through with the pregnancy. Considering that in the comics, all of Kilgrave's children inherited his MindRape powers, this was probably the best course of action....

* ''{{Series/Liar}}'': Makeda takes drugs to induce abortion. Nobody in the know disapproves, but they cover it up because her father ''would'', and send Makeda back to Ethiopia.

-->''As weeks went by, it showed that she was not fine.''
-->''They told me "Son, it's time to tell the truth.''
-->''She broke down and I broke down.''
-->'''Cause I was tired of lying.''

-->''Now that it's over''\\
''I just wanna hold her''\\
''I'd give up all the world to see''\\
''That little piece of Heaven looking back at me''

-->''Now that it's over''\\
''I just wanna hold her''\\
''I've gotta live with the choices I've made''\\
''And I can't live with myself today''

[[folder: Theater]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[/folder]]

This trope is most prevalent in the West, where abortion is still a sensitive topic, as most Christian denominations teach against it. As such, these plots may be used to deliver AnAesop about the controversy in a VerySpecialEpisode. Anti-abortion stories will have the person getting the abortion be a villain or "bad girl" who suffers an {{Anvilicious}} death or a HeelFaithTurn. Conversely, pro-abortion stories will blame society for the protagonist's woes, and use the story to soapbox about the evils of [[ReligionOfEvil organized religion]] or abortion restrictions ([[ActivistFundamentalistAntics abortion clinic protestors]] are a common antagonist here). As this is a touchy subject, there's room for plenty of nuance in between. Due to the potential for controversy, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease'''.

* In the 2003 ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' series there is an episode where a girl who wants to have an abortion. But her parents won't let her, and the religious beliefs of the colony she was from before the Cylon attack forbade it despite its legality. Though pro-choice herself, President Roslin understands that there are less than fifty thousand humans left in the ''universe'', and that they will have to grow their numbers if they're to survive as a species. In the end, she outlaws abortion via executive order... after the girl has had her abortion and has applied for asylum aboard ''Galactica'' so she doesn't have to go back to her parents.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' episode " [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS3E06BrrapBrrapPewPew Brrap Brrap Pew Pew]]", [[spoiler: Diane]] gets pregnant and immediately decides to get an abortion. While she doesn't regret it, she is emotionally fragile before the procedure and sore afterward. In the episode, she wrangles with the emotional baggage of having to manage a client who just embarked on a tone-deaf pro-abortion campaign, while having a conflict with Princess Caroline, who disagrees with her decision. [[spoiler:Diane]] also faces off against protestors at the abortion clinic.

** Downplayed in a third season episode. A stalking victim admits to having had an abortion about a year earlier, and though her fiancé is upset when he finds out, it does not seriously damage her or her relationship with him.

----

* In ''Film/BabyBoy'', when Yvette aborts what would have been her second child with Jody. She has sympathy on her side, however, since she's heartbroken over the procedure and her boyfriend Jody is an irresponsible {{jerkass}} who has a child with another woman.
* In the Christian film ''Deadly Choice'' where a doctor's daughter becomes pregnant and is considering an abortion and her father, a Christian, tries to talk her out of it, saying that it is murder. The daughter goes through with it anyway, but feels guilty about it.

* In ''Film/DirtyDancing'', the dancing instructor tries to have an abortion, but because it's TheSixties and they're illegal, it goes horribly wrong. Fortunately the heroine's father is a doctor, so he manages to save her, although it does make for a major misunderstanding. In this case the girl is still considered "good" both by the audience and the characters, and the blame is rightly placed on the rich snob who knocked her up and dumped her. Even the heroine's father blames him when he learns the truth.

* In ''Film/ElCrimenDelPadreAmaro'' (English title- ''The Crime of Father Amaro''), the titular priest has an affair with good girl Amelia and gets her pregnant. Him being a Catholic priest in very Catholic Mexico, he of course wants her to leave town to protect his reputation. Instead she tries to reunite with her ex-boyfriend Ruben so she can pass the baby off as his. When Ruben rejects her advances, Father Amaro arranges for Amelia to have a back-alley abortion. [[spoiler:The abortion, of course, goes wrong and Amelia dies. Ruben coincidentally leaves town at the same time and so is subsequently blamed for what happened to Amelia while Amaro gets to keep his good reputation.]] Amelia is portrayed as an innocent victim of Amaro's selfishness rather than a hussy who got what she deserved.
* ''Film/FastTimesAtRidgemontHigh'': Stacy Hamilton is a flawed but fundamentally good person. However, when she gets pregnant by Mike Damone[[note]]who she has sex with out of desperation after mistakenly believing Rat has no interest in her[[/note]], an abortion is quickly decided. The drama revolves not on the controversy or ill effects of the abortion, but on Damone flaking on paying his half, and failing to provide a promised ride. It's then exacerbated by Stacy witnessing a demonstration of babies being born at a nearby hospital, which makes her feel very guilty about what she did.

** In ''Film/Persona1966'', Alma's darkest secret is getting an abortion after an orgiastic tryst with underage boys. When she recounts this, she burst into tears and talks about how she is haunted that she isn't living according to her values. This sets up the duality between her and Elisabet, who was outwardly a perfect mother but deeply resents her son after failing to abort him.

* ''Film/LittleWoods'' concerns Ollie's sister Deb choosing to get an abortion due to being too poor to raise a second child. Unfortunately she doesn't have an ID, and the two sisters have to risk a trip across the US-Canadian border to meet with thieves who will make her one, but they turn out to be very shady folks. [[spoiler:Ultimately Deb has to settle for trying to mimic the picture on a stolen ID. The clinic's secretary spots the ruse, but pretends not to notice, allowing Deb to get the abortion.]]

* ''Literature/LittleFiresEverywhere'': [[spoiler:Lexie]] has an abortion after getting pregnant with [[spoiler:her boyfriend's]] baby so they can go to college. She is shown to have very mixed feelings but the people who learn about it don't tell her it was wrong.

* In Yulia Voznesenskaya's ''My Posthumous Adventures'', Anna, the main character, has an abortion at eighteen and at first doesn't think of it as anything bad, but she is left infertile, suffers bouts of depression due to it, and often secretly cries watching kids on a playground. After her [[spoiler:clinical]] death she is judged (among other things) for the child's murder, and shown that had she kept the baby, her boyfriend whom she thought immature would have married her, and they would have eventually become a happy and loving family.

* ''Literature/YouthInSexualEcstasy'' takes a strong pro-life stance. The protagonist of the novel mentions abortion as one of the main reasons for youngsters having sex freely, then after watching [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_silent_scream The Silent Scream]] he has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment when he remembers breaking up with his pregnant girlfriend (who pleaded and begged him to help her keep their baby) and then giving her the money for aborting his child.

* In ''Series/CallTheMidwife'', one episode follows [[Creator/SharonSmall Nora Harding]]'s increasingly desperate attempts to induce abortion. Her story is played utterly for sympathy -- she already had eight children and could hardly afford to feed and shelter them as it was -- and everyone who finds out are only worried that Nora will inadvertently hurt herself in her attempts to abort. The episode dealt with the issue of the invention of birth control, and how that would have saved her all of the heartbreak and stress she went through. Ultimately, Nora resorts to a back-alley abortion and nearly dies from septicemia. Sister Julienne tells Jenny that this is far from the first time she's dealt with the situation, and knows exactly what to tell the doctor so that the woman can get the necessary care without being arrested for an illegal abortion.

** Invoked: Tracy - MagnificentBitch extraordinaire - pretends she's pregnant and that she aborted the child in order to get sympathy from her boyfriend who wasn't letting her actual daughter live with them. Her mother is at first horrified that she got an abortion, and later horrified that Tracy would fake such a thing.
** Katy Harris was pregnant at eighteen (while dating a much older man). Her parents didn't approve of the relationship and told her when they suspected he was having an affair. He wasn't but Katy believed them and got an abortion. She's portrayed as a victim this time, and when she finds out she's DrivenToSuicide over it.

** Downplayed in a third season episode. A stalking victim admits to having had an abortion about a year earlier, and though her fiancÃ?Æ?Ã?â??Ã?â? Ã¢â?¬â?¢Ã?Æ?ââ?¬Å¡Ã?â??Ã?© is upset when he finds out, it does not seriously damage her or her relationship with him.

* In ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'', Mimi has an abortion after becoming pregnant by Rex. This is shown to be difficult for her emotionally, but she decides she is too young to have kids. She is punished harshly for this decision-she is blackmailed into assisting a kidnapper, her relationship with Rex falls apart when he finds out, and she becomes a borderline villain for some time.

** Erstwhile single-mother Michelle matter-of-factly aborted her husband's baby, after rejecting abortion while she was pregnant the first time. The difference was partly that she loved the father of the first child, the notorious Dirty Den, and didn't actually love her husband, weedy Lofty. Sadly, Lofty had wanted the baby, and this led to the break-up of their marriage (and arguably a better future for all concerned).

* Cassie is pressured into having an abortion by McKay in ''Series/{{Euphoria}}'', and while she does go through with it and it isn't portrayed as automatically negative, she is clearly extremely ambivalent about it.
* In the ''Series/FilthyRich'' episode "James 4:1", [[spoiler:Rose]] learns that she's pregnant, and faces the prospect of having to enter into a shotgun wedding to her hated ex-fiancee in order to cover up the fact that she got pregnant by [[spoiler:Mark, who's been posing as her half-brother.]] Naturally, Ginger offers to take her to New York to get an abortion, which she agrees is probably a better idea, but it puts her at odds with her very-religious mother.

** A servant girl Wen Fu brutally raped dies trying to induce an abortion, and she is portrayed sympathetically and tragically.

* ''Series/TheKnick'': When Cornelia becomes pregnant after having sex with Edwards he initially reluctantly agrees to perform an abortion so that it will be safe, but then backs out. So she goes to Sister Harriet. He isn't happy with this, but knows that being together is socially impossible, and them running away would mean giving up their lives in New York forever. People who don't know that Edwards is the father suggested Cornelia pass off the baby as her fiancee's, which she knew [[ChocolateBaby wouldn't work]].

Other times, the drama is in the fallout. The character who got the abortion may suffer physical side effects or even death, or simply be wracked with guilt and question her decision. The abortion can also cause conflict between characters. Often this arises between the parents of the fetus, when they disagreed about whether to have the abortion in the first place or secretly blame each other for the situation. This often leads to a break-up. Other times, the conflict is between the character who got the abortion and her [[TheFundamentalist conservative family or religious community, who may [[IHaveNoSon shun or even disown her]].

Other times, the drama is in the fallout. The character who got the abortion may suffer physical side effects or even death, or simply be wracked with guilt and question her decision. The abortion can also cause conflict between characters. Often this arises between the parents of the fetus, when they disagreed about whether to have the abortion in the first place or secretly blame each other for the situation. This often leads to a break-up. Other times, the conflict is between the character who got the abortion and her conservative family or religious community, who may [[IHaveNoSon shun or even disown her]].

This trope is most prevalent in the West, where abortion is still a sensitive topic, as most Christian denominations teach against it. As such, these plots may be used to deliver AnAesop about the controversy in a VerySpecialEpisode. Anti-abortion stories will have the person getting the abortion be a villain or "bad girl" who suffers an {{Anvilicious}} death or a HeelFaithTurn. Conversely, pro-abortion stories will blame society for the protagonist's woes, and use the story to soapbox about the evils of [[ReligionOfEvil organized religion]] or abortion restrictions ([[TheFundamentalist abortion clinic protestors]] are a common antagonist here). As this is a touchy subject, there's room for plenty of nuance in between. Due to the potential for controversy, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease'''.

This trope is most prevalent in the West, where abortion is still a sensitive topic, as most Christian denominations teach against it. As such, these plots may be used to deliver AnAesop about the controversy in a VerySpecialEpisode. Anti-abortion stories will have the person getting the abortion be a villain or "bad girl" who suffers an {{Anvilicious}} death or a HeelFaithTurn. Conversely, pro-abortion stories will blame society for the protagonist's woes, and use the story to soapbox about the evils of [[TheFundamentalist organized religion]] or abortion restrictions (abortion clinic protestors are a common antagonist here). As this is a touchy subject, there's room for plenty of nuance in between. Due to the potential for controversy, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease'''.