Leave it to showrunner Shonda Rhimes to ignite political debate.
On Thursday night's episode of ABC's Scandal -- the mid-season finale -- protagonist Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) ended a surprise pregnancy with an abortion. Meanwhile, former First Lady and current Republican Senator Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) led a filibuster on the Senate floor to avoid the passage of a bill that would have put Planned Parenthood under "discretionary spending."
Shondaland shows (including How To Get Away With Murder and Grey's Anatomy) never shy away from controversy. But this particular Scandal plotline hit close to home for many people amid a presidential election season where women's reproductive rights often become a debate topic.
The episode drew in 8.1 million viewers overall, according to Nielsen ratings. The show racked up 211,575 tweets, according to Nielsen TV ratings. Of the tweets, 67,570 -- almost 32% -- contained "reactions," or tweets with emotions, according to social TV platform Canvs. The company uses tweets, provided by Nielsen, to determine what emotions people have about TV.
An estimated 32% of reactions contained love.
@ScandalABC OH.MA. GAWD. #OliviaPope That was epic brave @kerrywashington AWESOME!!— Cleo Taurus (@CleoTaurus1) November 20, 2015
Of these "reactions," 1,672 contained the word abortion.
I love how planned parenthood and this abortion is tied together.Outstanding @shondarhimes #Scandal— tonia worsham (@tnja39) November 20, 2015
The hashtag " #standwithpp" garnered 1,251 reactions.
Liv had an abortion.Exercising her Right To Choose. Well played, Shonda. Well played. @ScandalABC #Scandal #shondarhimes #StandWithPP— PoliteSouthernHelle (@Angelinoo) November 20, 2015
Planned Parenthood sent Mashable a statement commending the episode.
Tonight, the millions of people who tune into Scandal every Thursday night learned that our rights to reproductive health care are under attack," the non-profit said. "Never one to shy away from critical issues, [showrunner] Shonda Rhimes used her platform to tell the world that if Planned Parenthood lost funding for contraception counseling, STI testing, cancer screenings, and safe, legal abortion — millions of people would suffer. And this episode wasn’t the first time one of Rhimes’ characters had an abortion, yet tonight we saw one of our favorite characters make the deeply personal decision that one in three women have made in their lifetime. We applaud Shonda Rhimes tonight — and every Thursday night – for proving that when women are telling our stories, the world will pause and watch. We just hope those in Congress — and throughout the nation — who are steadfast on rolling the clock back on reproductive health care access are taking note.
The organization also tweeted Thursday night using the hashtag "#standwithPP."
Thanks to @shondarhimes for standing with Planned Parenthood & for being groundbreaking creator! #Scandal #StandWithPP— Planned Parenthood (@PPact) November 20, 2015
Still, not everyone was happy. According to Canvs data, about 13.2% of reaction tweets contained dislike or hate.
@shondarhimes @ScandalABC Sometimes I think you go a little too far with some touchy subjects. Tonight's episode.......#EpicFail — Daphne Renee (@Daphne708Daphne) November 20, 2015
#Scandal stupid ass plots is why I stopped watching GREYS— ReadingVixen (@ReadingVixen) November 20, 2015
Rush Limbaugh was outraged, calling the on screen abortion "genuinely, literally sickening."
Yup, she has an abortion, and it's glorified, it's celebrated, it's heralded," he said on his show. "She has an abortion smiling. It's appealing to Planned Parenthood, it's a tribute to Planned Parenthood, I mean it's just sickening apparently. And she has an abortion, and laying on the table with the actual abortion taking -- and camera shots showing you what it would look like as the doctor's making the move from behind her head [hums "Silent Night"] -- there's a couple other things added to it, apparently it's just sickening.
Conservative media watchdog group Media Research Center also responded negatively, calling it "sick" in a blog post.
Between the execution of a man that opens the graphic clip below, the talk of 'soft tissue,' saying family destroys you, watching a doctor take his instruments between Olivia's legs, and the hint of a smile on her lips at the end," the organization wrote. "It is a truly vile scene, stomach churning scene.
How could ANYone see this scene and think "awesome"?? https://t.co/r7RKwIlf0E #Scandal— Katie Yoder (@k_yoder) November 20, 2015
Publicists at ABC did not immediately respond to comment.