“Hills Like White Elephants” is set at a train station bar by the Ebro river in Spain, somewhere between Barcelona and Madrid. Hemingway takes time to introduce the setting at the beginning of the story:
The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain […]. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building.
Hemingway’s note that “there was no shade and no trees”—and that the hills were “long and white”—paints a portrait of very sparse scenery. This intentionally mirrors the sparse language of the prose. It’s also possible that the barren land represents the barrenness of the couple's relationship—while the girl is literally pregnant (and therefore not "barren"), their tense relationship is certainly not a great context for raising a child. The couples’ location at a train station is also intentional, as train stations in literature typically represent a crossroads in characters’ lives. The couple is certainly at a crossroads here, as they have to determine whether the girl should have an abortion or not.
Also important to the setting of the story is the fact that abortions in the 1920s were riskier procedures than they are today. Abortion was technically illegal in the United States at the time, though women still sought them out from medical professionals who would offer illegal off-the-books operations. Because of the lack of proper support, thousands of women died from risky abortions every year. It’s likely that the girl was aware of these sorts of stories, inspiring her to respond sarcastically when the man insists that abortions are “perfectly simple” procedures.
