by Kelli A while back I reluctantly attended a girls’ movie night with a few other women in their late 20s. When I arrived, I was informed we were to watch Obvious C?hild. I was less than one beer in when I deduced none of the women there had ever had an abortion. I quietly […]

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli

• Secular Pro-Life has discovered some interesting nuggets in Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report. For instance, PP hails the box office flop Obvious Child as a “major victory.” They also boast of an increased college campus presence, bringing them to over 200 chapters. However, there are more than 4 times as many pro-life college campus groups. SPL’s personal favorite is the fact that PP credits their own organization with preventing an extra 1,000 unplanned pregnancies even though they show a decrease in dispensing contraceptives.

Amy and Ester, the Florida high school students at the center of “Dry Land,” have a time-sensitive problem to solve: Amy’s unwanted pregnancy. Unlike the women recently played by Jenny Slate in the indie film “Obvious Child” and by Julia Stiles in the Off Broadway romance “Phoenix,” Amy isn’t an adult, so her mother would […]

As commenter Christina noted on Facebook (a line I stole on Twitter), “Let’s make abortion the central theme of a comedy, then pretend we’re not trivializing it and trying to make it funny.”

But that’s exactly what the star of a romantic comedy about abortion is trying to say.

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• A judge in Iowa has upheld the ban on telemed/Skype abortions in the state:
  

  The judge wrote that the medical board has significant authority to regulate such issues. “There is no question that the board has the power to establish standards of practice for the medical profession. Those standards include the authority to adopt and enforce standards regarding the minimal standards of acceptable and prevailing practice,” he wrote.

  The system has remained in use while the two sides wrangled in court. The judge’s ruling is set to take effect in 30 days. A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman said her agency would file a legal appeal.

by Carder It’s getting great reviews because it’s a serious issue, but you make it lighthearted, you make it funny…. Good for you. ~ Late-night comedian Jimmy Fallon complimenting actress Jenny Slate on her performance in the abortion comedy Obvious Child (which was actually a box-office bomb), via Newsbusters, August 4

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli

• Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life says Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton appears to value dogs and cats more than the women of his state who procure abortions:
  

  A measure to license and inspect commercial dog and cat breeders — passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton earlier this year — went into effect on July 1. The new regulations throw into sharp relief Dayton’s refusal to accept any state licensing or inspection of abortion facilities, which perform thousands of surgical procedures on Minnesota women each year.

The abortion industry did its best to pitch the movie Obvious Child as an “unapologetic” but “hilarious” romantic comedy about abortion, even as the director and star eschewed such a depiction. See headlines right.

And therein lies the irony.

Abortion proponents want desperately to remove the stigma surrounding abortion, and they desperately hoped Obvious Child would be a “game-changing” vehicle to entice and persuade pop culture.

But those who invested and starred in Obvious Child pragmatically knew aversion to abortion would be exactly what kept pop culture from attending, thus their attempts to back away from the odious A-word. (The film distributor’s synopsis of the film doesn’t even include the word “abortion.”)

Neither tactic worked.