Soap Opera Social Issues - Abortion
The second social issue was abortion. Eighty percent of men agreed that the issue should be presented on soaps while fifty percent of women agreed and forty percent of women disagreed. The other ten percent of women chose undecided. This is certainly an issue that many people feel strongly about so it is no surprise that most took a stand. It's usually the pro-choice side that wants the issue out in the open. When TV shows deal with abortion, pro-life groups often stage demonstrations and threaten boycotts.
The women's results of half disagreeing and half agreeing were expected. As for men, there were probably a higher number of pro-choice men who took the survey or an unusually high number of pro-life men who still think the issue should be presented. A larger survey sample would probably have returned male results closer to the female votes.
When this article was first written in 1992, there had been three abortions on daytime television (ANOTHER WORLD, ALL MY CHILDREN, and THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS with a fourth going on in 1992 on AS THE WORLD TURNS. Since that time, there was one in 1995 (ALL MY CHILDREN) and another in 2004 on DAYS OF OUR LIVES.
As Jennifer Lenhart of Soap Opera Digest stated it, "To put that into perspective, there were more characters who came back from the dead in this year alone." (Lenhart) Over the years other characters have considered and discussed terminating pregnancies on many shows so the issue is dealt with slightly more than the previous sentences indicate if taken out of context. However, it still seems to be an area that the audience wants discussed more, even if network executives and advertisers fear to tread in this particular storyline arena.
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