Abortion vanishes from silver screen
Great story in the entertainment section of the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday:
In America, about one in five pregnancies ends in abortion, according to the latest figures from the Guttmacher Institute. In recent American movies, however, every unplanned pregnancy is carried to term.
From Knocked Up to Waitress to Juno [scene pictured left], opening Dec. 14, abortion is The Great Unmentionable, euphemized as “we don’t perform, uh, — ” (Waitress), and “nipped it in the bud” (Juno) in comedies in which pregnancy is the situation. Abortion is likewise obliquely referenced, if actually considered, in the drama Bella, now in theaters.
“It’s as if there’s an ‘every conception deserves delivery’ policy being observed,” says Virginia Rutter, senior scholar at the Council on Contemporary Families….
To the extent that mainstream movies are a barometer of public opinion, the evidence of America’s continued ambivalence about abortion can be found at the multiplex.
“The ground has shifted,” says Robert George, professor of the philosophy of law at Princeton. “We don’t see characters wrestling with the question of abortion as we saw it during the ’70s when (television’s) Maude weighed the decision whether to keep or terminate her pregnancy.”…
[A]cross the ideological spectrum, scholars and advocates ponder why the procedure that so divides Americans – according to a May Gallup Poll, 49% of Americans identify as pro-choice and 45% as pro-life – effectively has vanished from the screen….
Since the ’80s, when characters in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Dirty Dancing sought abortions, abortion has virtually disappeared from Hollywood features. The Cider House Rules, released in 1999 and focusing on an obstetrician-abortionist and his anti-abortion protege during the 1940s, may well have been the last mainstream American movie to utter the A-word.
In Europe, it is different: The 2004 indie British drama Vera Drake and the 2007 Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, which took top honors at Cannes in May, dramatize the peril to women in situations where abortion is not safe and legal.
Also add the currently released August Rush and soon to be released Noelle to the list of decidedly pro-life films:
Why do you think abortion is vanishing from American cinephotography?
[HT: mods Jasper and MK]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Why do you think abortion is vanishing from American cinephotography?
Perhaps the “culture of death” is responsible.
tp,
makes sense to me.
I think it is the opposite.
In movies, the STORY is the king. Nothing says drama like controversy, hard choices, and heightened emotion.
I think that it is because abortion is so “normal” and the “usual choice” that these stories are focusing on the protagonist having the baby. It’s more interesting, more dramatic in this day and age.
Remember, Dirty Dancing and Fast Times were made long before schools started providing free transportation to Planned Parenthood. Modern movies, if they feature abortion, typically are about the abortionist (as misunderstood philanthropist, of course) rather than the consequences and emotional nuance of the pregnant mother.
Hnn…was abortion ever in the cinema to begin with? Maybe I don’t watch enough movies. =/
I have heard a rumor that Noelle might contain some anti-Catholic overtones.
Anybody know for sure?
I personally think it has disappeared from films and TV because of the efforts of the PL movement and the exposure it has gotten over the past few years for being the depraved and barbaric procedure(s) that it is.
As more and more stories of the truth about the abortion industry have surfaced, people are being forced to see what this whole issue REALLY involves. There are more and more articles about the present state of the abortion industry now than at any other time since Roe vs Wade was enacted.
Stories and coverage of Planned Parenthood, George Tiller, the clinic in Hialeah Fla.(sp?) and others, thanks to media recognition are NOT helping the abortion industry.
The feminist movement is no longer able to continue perpetrating their lies and deception about abortion and what it does to women and families.
The abortion industry is self destructing before our eyes. The younger generation is becoming increasingly more pro life as time passes, as is the population as a whole. Public acceptance and tolerance of abortion, and all it’s dirty secrets are diminishing rapidly, and don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise.
The abortion industry is aborting itself…and not a moment too soon, Praise God !
I just took a brief look at Noelle at imdb and wikipedia.
Wow. A Catholic priest with a dark past struggling with his faith… there’s a new character.
I don’t know if it is overtly offensive to Catholics, but my Spidey sense thinks it might be.
Milehimama,
Good to see you back. You and Mike make good points. I think too much of an effort has been made to shove abortion down the throats of the American public, especially by Hollywood.
I remember one episode of “Law and Order” about a clinic bombing resulting in death. It was so full of stereotypes and absurdities it was laughable. I mean, I’ve seen the Keystone Cops solve more complex cases and in a lot less time. Of course the woman having the abortion and who died in the clinic was a Catholic school teacher, you couldn’t miss the 50,000 nuns at the school she worked at, and the prolife woman leader who looked like a pitbull and could calmly sit in a restaurant with a concealed deadly explosive at her feet.
The folks in Hollywood should realize you can overdo stereotypes.
I remember when the TV movie Roe v Wade was also a flop, despite much fanfare.
Hollywood has to make money, and just as they are finally learning that films slamming our troops and veterans are flopping, they are learning that the American public no longer wants abortion shoved down its throat.
Andrew: “I have heard a rumor that Noelle might contain some anti-Catholic overtones.
Anybody know for sure?”
It really seems like a great movie, but I would like to know this also. I haven’t been able to find a review from a Catholic source yet….
I think it’s largey because people want to see people struggle and triumph. An abortion is just caving in and giving up.
A pregnancy movie in which the woman just called Planned Parenthood would be like a spy movie in which the first gadget didn’t work so James Bond just went back to London and said, “This mission is too hard. Let’s go get some fish and chips.”
Another angle that is very interesting, is that these movies (Bella, Noelle, etc.) are all independent films.
The studio system is an overly collaborative system filled with focus groups, notes, etc. The way a film was written is not how it appears on screen – except in the Shangri-La of a writer/director or outside the studio system.
Even the biggies like Knocked Up (Universal) had a writer/director (Judd Apatow).
If they had been made in a studio system with an assigned writer and director, the nuances would all be painted out and the stereotypes painted in to make sure every person in America would understand every character in every way. It’s kind of the vanilla cupcake version of “art”.
Well, the girl in “Fast Times” was a tramp. When she had an abortion, I remember how very cold she acted when it was over with. Back to school and on to a new conquest.
Mary, excellent post!
“Fast Times…” Phoebe Cates. Oh Yeah.
Well, the girl in “Fast Times” was a tramp.
Posted by: heather at December 2, 2007 2:36 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes. She got pregnant outside of wedlock.
Filth. Pure filth.
Yes. She got pregnant outside of wedlock.
Filth. Pure filth.
Posted by: Laura at December 2, 2007 9:39 PM********************** No. She was a tramp, because she had an abortion.
That’s what the message in the movie meant to me. She put out right away. She became pregnant. She killed her baby. She rid herself of responsibility. Tramp.
Andrew,
If you are still reading, Noelle does appear to mock Catholicism.
http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1363