Inaccurate, Sensational Media Coverage Contributes to Abortion Stigma in India

Abortion has been legal in India for past 50 years, and a recent amendment to the abortion law expanded the circumstances for legal abortion, which can now be performed within 20 weeks on the advice of one doctor and between 20 and 24 weeks on the advice of two doctors.

But abortion remains largely stigmatized in Indian society, and a recent media analysis has found that Indian media perpetuate this stigma by focusing on sensationalized stories; denigrating women who choose abortion; using language that reinforces perceptions that abortion is disgusting, evil, or highly controversial; and almost always covering abortion as a political issue rather than a health care matter. Rarely covered are facts that would provide people with information on abortion as a safe health care service.

“Abortion coverage for last 10 years in print and digital media platforms relied largely on political magniloquence that rarely consists of contextualized information with medical research, experts’ opinions, or real-life abortion stories,” according to the analysis, conducted by Safe Abortion for Everyone (SAFE), a research and advocacy project that is part of the Youth Parliament Foundation, an intersectional feminist organization.

The research, which examined coverage and portrayals of abortion in print, digital media, and entertainment media over the last 10 years, further found that coverage of abortion tended to be “written either by lifestyle journalists or general assignment writers rather than trained health reporters,” pointing out that “the former are less likely to reference a medical expert or to include medical research than the latter, and fail to include those directly affected by abortion; thereby, media rarely ground their coverage in the science of abortion.”

The analysis found that media coverage of abortion tends to focus on gruesome court cases or extreme scenarios such as forced abortion, unsafe abortion practices resulting in life-threatening problems, or rape victims denied abortion. Multiple news reports speak of sex-selective abortion as “female feticide” instead of contextualizing it in discriminatory cultural norms.

Another common problem in news reports and articles is the use of inaccurate images or ill-informed imagery such as heavily pregnant bellies, fetuses detached from bodies, or scissors juxtaposed with fetuses, topped with emotionally charged phrases such as “end of life” or “killing a life,” or “shameful crime.”

The researchers also looked at Indian cinema and television, finding that they too have contributed to the stigmatization of abortion, framing it to reflect a sense of moral panic rather than locating it in a positively framed spectrum of women’s reproductive freedom. For example, in 2011, soap opera Bade Achhe Lagte Hain depicted a career-oriented woman, Natasha, played by Sumona Chakravarti, as being morally problematic for seeking an abortion. In the 2004 movie Aitraaz, starring Priyanka Chopra, another career-oriented woman who gets abortion is shown in a negative light and vilified.

The men who co-conceived the pregnancies are rarely featured. Indian television and cinema has time and again glorified the normative attitude that girls “get into trouble,” while boys have “healthy urges” they can’t control. In several daytime dramas and films, a young woman getting pregnant “out of wedlock” is depicted as a symbol of shame to the family, whereas the man involved has no moral accountability.

“Since a majority of Indian population picks their lessons from films, and Bollywood is regressive when it comes to advocating for a woman’s right to abortion or even disinterest in children, societal stigma around abortion is deep rooted, and the conversations around termination of pregnancy always boil down to ‘Let’s not kill the child’ or shaming the women, be it in movies like Zeher, Salaam Namaste, Sultan, or even a recent supposedly woke one — Mimi,” says Zarafshan Shiraz, a Delhi-based senior content producer (lifestyle) for Hindustan Times.

The specific provocative terms in which abortions seekers are described in films and television frame them as irresponsible, immoral (e.g., in the movie Aitraaz), incapable of looking after themselves or of managing their own sexuality (e.g., the films Kya Kehna and Salaam Namastey), selfish for being career oriented (e.g., the movie Zeher and daily soap opera Bade Achhe Lagte Hain), and not behaving respectably, reducing their image to pathetic or distressed. These portrayals can affect public perceptions of actual women seeking abortion, contributing to and perpetuating stigma.

Headlines such as “Big Question on High Numbers of Abortion Happening?” which is presented as an alarming question on why are abortions happening in such numbers; “If You Could See the Leftovers Removed From the Uterus in Abortion, the Water in Your Throat Will Dry Up,” “Game of Abortion Being Played for Just 900 Rupees in the Middle of the City,” “Woman and her mother arrested for abortion” reflect the extreme tone of moral policing.

“Our focus should shift to how to provide girls and women access to best and free contraceptive and abortion services so that they can avoid unplanned pregnancies and STDs,” says Somya Gupta, a Delhi based obstetrician/gynecologist. “We need dedicated 24-7 abortion and contraceptive services in every district of India. This will change the face of women’s health in India”

Under the abortion law, known as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, a woman must rely on doctors to approve the termination of her pregnancy, putting her at risk of being denied abortion on moral grounds. According to research on abortion and mental health by David C. Reardon, concerns about judgment, isolation, societal censure, a need for secrecy, and a low expectation of social support for their decision are all major variables in bad psychological outcomes following abortion (e.g., feelings of isolation, depression, and anxiety).

There’s no doubt that media coverage helps to shape public opinion on social, political, economic, and cultural issues, and abortion coverage is no exception. As a result of high stigmatization around the topic, safe abortion facilities are still inaccessible to a lot of women, especially after the gestational limit, because of a fear of judgment or fear of being labeled as immoral or simply lack of awareness (a byproduct of taboos present in society), forcing them to turn to unsafe abortion practices or, in extreme cases, life-threatening options.

A small number of articles on some emerging digital media platforms have sought to create a space in which abortion can be framed positively, and explicitly pro-choice articles have been increasing in recent years; however, the frequency of such coverage is quite low and is often followed by an undermining “but” or “or” to introduce a contrary perspective.