Basic Trope: Abortion doesn't happen in fiction; any character faced with an unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancy will always keep the baby, no matter what.
- Straight:
- Alice becomes pregnant, and Betty suggests that Alice have an abortion. Alice is shocked that Betty would suggest such a thing, and decides to keep the baby.
- The option of an abortion is never mentioned.
- In the story, abortion is illegal for ethical reasons.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice's lifestyle or career makes it such that having a baby would be extraordinarily difficult, and despite knowing this full well, she decides to have the baby and raise it alone.
- The child was conceived as a result of rape or incest, and Alice decides she still wants the baby.
- Going through with the pregnancy would put Alice's life in danger, and Alice still goes through with the pregnancy.
- The Obviously Evil Empire is the only place where abortion is even legal; everywhere else it is punishable by execution and the work treats this like a fair punishment. Every abortion doctor moonlights as a serial killer and abortion is the only act in the series that is treated as a Moral Event Horizon.
- The only people in the setting who support legal abortions are either eugenicists who think the state should perform them (women's choice be damned), or Omnicidal Maniacs who are outright anti-life.
- Pro-life people are shown adopting non-planificated children, helping mothers in economic troubles, and wanting death penalty to punish rapists. Narrator agrees with all this. pro-choicers are seen accusing pro-life to be misogynists who believe in Mandatory Motherhood, and pro-choicers believe fetuses are non-humans who don't have right to live but they are the first in being against death penalty to punish rapists. Narrator critics them by be hypocrite.
- Downplayed:
- Alice gives the baby up for adoption.
- Alice is 48 years old and in poor health. One night, she sleeps with Bob who is just 65 years old and impregnates her, despite the odds of Alice being already menopausal. She knows that if she gives birth, the baby will be deformed or have some birth defect, not to mention the fact that neither are fit enough to raise a young kid. So Alice has an abortion, but repeatedly states that she wouldn't have done so under normal circumstances.
- Bob impregnates Alice by accident. Alice wants to get rid of the baby but Bob wants her to keep it, on the agreement that he will never pursue her afterwards and raise the baby himself. Alice agrees and gives up her offspring to their father.
- Justified:
- Alice knows the unplanned pregnancy was the result of her and Bob not being careful enough, and she has a philosophy of owning up to her mistakes.
- Alice believes that fetuses are humans and that abortion kills them, so she believes that abortion is the murder of children, and she Would not Hurt a Child.
- Alice is a religious woman and abortion is against her religious or moral beliefs.
- Alice is a politician who has expressed a very strongly pro-life stance; terminating the pregnancy would get her branded a hypocrite, and she'd lose constituents.
- The culture Alice lives in believes both that fetuses are fully human and that Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil.
- In this setting, abortion is not legal, and therefore the procedure involves going to a Back-Alley Doctor who may be more concerned about the bottom line than the patient's safety (or worse, doing it herself at home); Alice doesn't want to take the risk.
- The story is set at a time when really any medical procedure was only dubiously safe at best.
- Alice had a traumatic experience dealing with a friend's abortion and its aftermath, and doesn't want to go through what her friend experienced.
- Adam and Eve Plot.
- Gender Inverted: Bob gets pregnant, and insists on carrying the baby to term.
- Inverted:
- Alice decides to keep the baby for selfish reasons, such as setting up a Baby Trap or so she can raise it down her dark path.
- Alice opts to terminate her pregnancy, and this is treated as the most merciful option for her horribly deformed baby.
- Alice decides to keep a baby she originally didn't want to have, and the act is viewed as irresponsible and egotistical by others (e. g. due to living in an overpopulated dystopia).
- For some reason, Alice aborts a baby she wanted to keep.
- Subverted:
- Alice ponders the possibility of having an abortion.
- Alice has a Convenient Miscarriage anyway.
- Alice kept the baby, but only because the father paid her to. Morality never came into the matter; it just became more convenient to keep the baby than not to.
- Turns out Alice did want to have a baby.
- Alice is a teenager, so her friends understand her choice.
- Alice goes to a Crisis Pregnancy center for advice.
- Alice is pregnant with a genuinely wanted baby, but an ultrasound reveals something seriously wrong with the fetus, that would cause it to be either stillborn, or to live only for a few pain-wracked moments. Alice and Bob make the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice decides against it for whatever reason(s), perhaps after someone in her life gives her a What the Hell, Hero?.
- Alice had an abortion and vocally defends her decision ... but it is revealed at the end that her parents coerced her into getting an unwanted abortion, chaining her to her bed and paying a crooked abortion doctor to preform the procedure in their home.
- Instead, she decides to put it up for adoption or simply give up the child to their father.
- Alice feels immensely guilty for getting an abortion, and cannot live with her actions.
- Alice's "miscarriage" was really an abortion that she had done in secret, and when that secret is revealed, Alice is scorned by other characters.
- The laws where Alice lives put heavy restrictions on abortions for minors, except in the case of rape, incest, or a risk to the girl's health. This means Alice must get parental consent, or her parents will be notified, or else she has to go before a judge who will decide if she's "responsible" enough to have that rule waived. This puts Alice at risk of Honor-Related Abuse by her older brothers or disownment...and there's always a chance that the judge will say "no," forcing Alice to go through with the pregnancy, go to a Back-Alley Doctor, or attempt to do it herself at home.
- Parodied:
- Lilith Badgirl terminates her pregnancy, and is treated as scum for doing so, but Alice smokes, drinks and does excessive drugs during pregnancy and the other characters either don't comment on it, or laud her for hanging in there.
- Alice is a Good Bad Girl who got pregnant an awful lot of times, and since she wanted to get rid of them without aborting them, a sizable number of kids in foster homes are her own and she doesn't know it.
- Alice initially wants to abort, but the fetus talks her and she discover that her fetus has feelings. She feels bad by have considered the possibility of abortion, has her baby and she becomes a pro-life activist. Betty doesn't believe in Alice when she says that the fetus spoke, and Betty gets into Hell for five minutes by dehumanizing a fetus. And the fetus hates Betty.
- Zig Zagged: After a long mental debate, Alice finally decides to get an abortion, but as she enters the clinic, she guilts herself out of it. She loses consciousness during labor, and it turns out to be a miscarriage. Then it turns out one of the nurses, who is infertile, switched around her paperwork and kidnapped the baby. Alice confronts her and the nurse says she knows that Alice didn't actually want the baby, offering to at least let her visit now and then, but then...
- Averted:
- Alice has an abortion, and her friends know but don't care; perhaps the author is pro-choice and reflects this in their work.
- Alice is a serious and dedicated practitioner of contraception and thus doesn't get pregnant to begin with.
- Alice is barren. Abortion will never be a problem for her.
- Alice's pregnancy was planned, so abortion is completely unnecessary.
- Enforced:
- "We don't want to bring religion or politics into this show and polarize the audience, so we'll just avoid the issue."
- The author believes that human life begins at fertilization, and it's reflected in their works.
- Lampshaded: "How could you even suggest such a thing, Betty?! I'm not getting an abortion and I'm angry you'd even ask!"
- Invoked:
- Alice, a devout Orthodox Jewess, is seduced by her boyfriend Bob. She gets pregnant outside of wedlock, resulting in a hasty wedding, and carries the baby to term so as to avoid scandal in both their families.
- Alice is extremely poor, and knows that having her baby will get her an increase in welfare.
- Exploited: Alice publishes a book on why she chose to keep her baby, and she becomes a leader of the anti-abortion movement. Alternately, the publishes a book about having an abortion, defending her decision and becoming a leader of the abortion rights movement.
- Defied:
- Alice decides that having the baby will cause problems for her (and that she is not cut out to be a mother and/or can't support a child), and heads to the nearest abortion clinic.
- "What did you want me to do? Give birth and become yet another welfare queen just so I could raise a baby that's gonna be a problem for society later?"
- "You're hounding me about having had an abortion but how many unwanted kids did you adopt?"
- Discussed:Bob: "Alice, this child is also my child. Parthenogenesis isn't possible for a human female and you got not Mystical Pregnancy. You don't want the child? Fine. I'll father it by myself and pay you for your troubles."Alice: "Bob, stop bullshiting. You don't have the money for that."Bob: "I do. I just never told you. If you agree to give our child to light, I'll give you whichever you reckon is worth this strain on your body and then leave with the child, with you free of any engagement whatsoever".
- "Mom, I can't believe you tried to abort me. How can I trust you if you think I'm just a mistake?"
- "Bob, I don't care if you want to be a father. I'm having an abortion, and there is nothing wrong with that. You should go find a woman who doesn't believe in abortion."
- Conversed: "The characters on this show sure can be cruel. What Alice needs is the support of those around her, not judgment."
- Implied: Alice constantly mentions that she is "looking forward to being a mother", but the baby never comes. Because she wanted to keep the baby, she clearly had a Convenient Miscarriage rather than an abortion.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice is being influenced by others' opinions at a time when what she really needs is support, not judgment.
- Though everyone wants Alice to keep the baby, nobody is willing to help support it. In fact, Alice's relatives even voted against a bill that would provide charitable funds for impoverished parents (possibly while also being against abortion).
- Alice is nearly beaten to death by her parents simply because she had an abortion.
- Alice's parents only care about obtaining a legacy, not about their daughter's physical or mental well-being.
- Alice, especially if she has had a traumatic experience witnessing any friends going through unwanted abortions, willfully chooses Death by Childbirth rather than an abortion, and her choice is framed by the narrative as being completely immoral due to the ramifications of her death, namely that her child will grow up without their biological mother. Oddly enough, Alice's own family is against her decision because they don't want her to die, but is helpless to stop her, because "patient's body, patient's choice" is supposed to apply regardless of whether or not a patient wants an abortion.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice makes the best decision for herself and her situation, and her friends and family are supportive of her regardless.
- Some people, despite still considering abortion to be bad, actually provide support to help struggling parents raise their children as well as to help pregnant women who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford to carry their child to term.
- Some people regard some abortions as necessary euthanasia, like in the case of babies afflicted with a horrible condition that will only lead to them dying a painful and gruesome dead once they're born. All things considered, the merciful thing to do is to given them respite of that suffering.
- Though Alice goes through the procedure, she insists on giving the baby a proper burial.
- Alice's child has their struggles in the wake of Alice's death in childbirth somewhat alleviated by the fact that they are adopted by loving parents.
- Played for Laughs: Betty suggests that Alice has an abortion. Alice takes her to the bathroom and washes her mouth out with soap for daring to say the "A" word.
- Played for Drama:
- The story is all about Alice wanting an abortion, and attempting to withstand the pressure of others against this.
- In order to get the abortion, Alice (a teen) has to tell her parents that she's sexually active, she got pregnant, and that she plans to abort. Her parents don't take this news well at all, and Alice is beaten, murdered, or disowned.
- Alice found out that her baby has a condition that will make it unlikely to survive, or to live a normal life, but Alice is forced to carry the baby.
- Alice is forced into a marriage she does not want and/or does not feel ready for, because she got pregnant out of wedlock.
- Alice does have the baby and even decides to keep it...but is quickly ostracized for being a single mother (especially if this is a period piece) and learns that no one cares about her baby despite forcing her to give birth to it, resulting in a cruel Morton's Fork.
- Alice decides to go through with it, and walks into the clinic surrounded by protestors yelling nasty, hateful things at her.
- Having already lost a friend who was pressured into getting an abortion to suicide, Alice is distraught at the prospect of ever getting an abortion even to save her own life, because she views abortion as "inhumane uterine experimentation", and "proof that God doesn't exist", stubbornly ignoring the fact that her friend's autonomy being disrespected is the underlying issue.
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