“Grey’s Anatomy”: The abortion that haunts
When last I wrote about ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy in September 2011, abortion proponents were “thrilled” that Christina had aborted husband Owen’s baby.
A recap: Christina (played by Sandra Oh) is a career-oriented resident surgeon who doesn’t want kids. Owen (played by Kevin McKidd), also a surgeon, does. The couple’s clashing belief systems create turmoil when Christina accidentally gets pregnant. But she ultimately gets an abortion with glum but supportive Owen by her side.
Pro-aborts were happy Christina killed her baby. The ACLU thanked Grey’s Anatomy for “provid[ing] an opening” to “change the culture.” NARAL gave show writers “kudos.” RH Reality Check thought the episode was “a reflection of current attitudes” and that ABC execs must have “realize[d] that a majority of their viewers think abortion should be safe, legal, and available.”
Not so fast.
The advancing storyline: Owen and Christina don’t talk about the abortion afterward and try to awkwardly move on.
But in the January 19 episode Owen snaps. You can skip to :41 in this well-acted, heart-wrenching scene:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2_HUXMjQkg[/youtube]
“You killed our baby. You don’t ever forget that!” an anguished Owen cries out.
And that, RH Reality Check, is actually the “reflection of current attitudes” percolating under the surface of millions of relationships in America no matter how much time has passed since the Roe decision. People instinctively know abortion kills a baby.
Not surprisingly, abortion proponents have gone silent on this Grey’s Anatomy episode.
But not so critics. The Dishmaster proclaimed show creator Shonda Rhimes’ (pictured right) “writing slump… completely resurrected…. The show… is better than ever.” TVLine called this “too-real” episode one of the “best hours of TV.”
I give Rhimes, who sits on the board of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, credit for portraying one of the realities of the aftermath of abortion.
Here was another revealing comment by actress Ellen Pompeo, who plays Meredith on the show. She sure sounds pro-life. When asked if she thinks the onscreen couple will make it, Pompeo responded, according to the Huffington Post:
“That’s a really tough situation,” Pompeo said of Owen and Cristina. “I don’t see a good end…. Realistically, I don’t see how a couple could recover from something so damaging.”
“But, this is ‘Grey’s Anatomy,'” she continued with a laugh. “Anything can happen. We’re not necessarily always in reality here.“
Right, the reality is abortion destroys relationships.
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.
“We’re not necessarily always in reality here.” This quotation says it all. Thank you for reporting on this slice-of-life episode. I’m too busy watching reruns of Law & Order and NCIS to invest in another medical drama that isn’t “House” or “ER.”
Our ‘baby’? Didn’t he mean our ‘pregnancy tissue’? Oopsie. A doctor calling an unborn baby a *gasp* baby? Scandalous!
I give the show credit for showing the reality of this horrible decision. Pro Choice followers praise this as “cleaning up a mistake”. Yet these same people likely have never had to deal with the choice that they so blindly support.
My prayer is that we get a clear law that states life begins at conception and therefor abortion is legally murder. Which of course is already the case morally.
I was turned off the last time “Cristina” wanted an abortion (in season 2), not even telling the father, because she assumed he wouldn’t want her to do it. That actually ended in an ectopic pregnancy. If I remember correctly, “Meredith” was less than thrilled with her friend’s choice that time as well. But loved her friend though it anyway.
When Meredith found herself pregnant, in a later season, Cristina’s first reaction was not elation, but was to ask if Meredith was thinking of abortion.
Wow. That was some scene, alright.
So excited that real consequences are being shown instead of an unrealistic happily ever after. At the same time, it is heartbreaking because it IS realistic. Marriages really do fall apart from abortion.
I had heard the show was great, but couldn’t bring myself to watch it after I heard about the abortion episode. I may start it.
I think the writers did a great job of showing both sides of this issue. I have a been a fan of Grey’s Anatomy since season 2. I didn’t like that Cristina chose the abortion, but I knew the writers wouldn’t let this issue get swept under the rug because Owen made a big deal about it in the first place. It showed the problems that occur when couples aren’t on the same page about key life changing decisions. I try not to shy away from shows that do a great job of discussing both sides of an issue. They did the same thing when Callie came “out” to her parents. One parent didn’t agree and never came around while the other accepted it; not necessarily head over heals happy about it, but accepted it and told her that he loved her no matter what. Life is one big gray area and Grey’s does a decent job of portraying multiple views.
Sarah, can’t say I’d recommend it, the whole point of the show is to show as many different sexual incounters within a hospital setting. Adultery, long term affairs, cheating, serial relationships, wrecked marriages, abortions, porn, underage sex, unethical sex (as in against hospital/legal policy), homosexual sex, the actors might do an ok job in their roles, they do for the most part, but good acting of trash is still trash. If watching a bunch of people have various sexual escapades and then whine about their lives not being perfect sounds like a good plot line to you, I’m pretty sure the ‘Friends’ dvd sets are cheaper. My husband, unfortunately, likes the series, so I’ve watched enough to swear it off. None of the characters are the least bit likeable, they are all whiny little self-centered narcassists who bounce from one self-created trauma to the other while trying to sleep with anything that will hold still long enough for them to acomplish the act.
Jespren – That is classic! I love your incredibly accurate description of this show and, sadly, many others!!
Well I think what you guys conveniently deny / gloss over is that most pro-choice folks ACCEPT that abortion is a gray area. Some women / families may have abortions and feel unaffected by it and others may need time to mourn or accept. While others, still, may NEVER get over it (i.e. Carla). We accept that abortion is a fact of life where not everything is perfect but women need options and choices to deal with a tough hand. Feeling sad after an abortion OR feeling relief does not make a person soulless and it does not mean that a woman regrets her decision – it just means that we’re all human and we all have to move through life doing the best we can.
My wife had made me watch this show for years. They handle these issues pretty fairly usually. The other women who had/considered abortions on this show also had difficult experiences. :(
Thank you MamaMT :) my habitual lack of tact makes describing things very easy ;)
Sarah, can’t say I’d recommend it, the whole point of the show is to show as many different sexual incounters within a hospital setting.
Yeah, once I figured that out, I quit watching. It got old pretty fast. The acting is good, but I can’t say I “recommend” the show, either.
As history continues to prove … abortion is murder and is not the answer. Let us acknowledge of how people get to the place in time that killing your baby would be the best choice … an irreversable choice that you will live to regret. In the meantime, let us gather in prayer to end abortion and make available to women the truth and outcome of all their options, all their choices. God bless all mothers and their babies …
How sad and pathetic that organizations would come out and applaud an abortion.
Gosh, even when you know its fake and a script… its depressing.
The other interesting thing is that Christina got pregnant to begin with. She doesn’t want kids. She is a doctor. She obviously has money, has access to birth control, and is no dummy on how to use birth control. Yet IT STILL FAILED huh? And birth control is supposed to end abortion.
Abortion sure isn’t a gray area for the the dead children.
facts like the ones Jesperen pointed out would also be the reason I don’t watch “True Blood” even though I love vampire flicks. Stuff like that’s also gotten me to change the channel on Walking Dead even though I adore the core of that show. Why can’t people just keep their pants on?! Sex is certainly the LAST think I’d be thinking about and DEFINITELY the last thing I’d do in the event of a zombie apocalypse. XD
Well I think what you guys conveniently deny / gloss over is that most pro-choice folks ACCEPT that abortion is a gray area.
Well, you know what people say to that.
Seriously agree, Jespren. I don’t even care that much about the sex; I’m more offended by the more general implications of what is seen as “being a good person” and what isn’t. I think Grey’s Anatomy is one of the worst non-reality TV shows I’ve ever seen. It’s a celebration of self-absorption, in which childish behavior is seen as a shortcut to personality traits. The characters always seem stunned to face consequences for their absurd actions, whether it’s cutting a patient’s wire to bump him up the donor list or fiddling with the results of a clinical trial to get a friend in, and the narrative perspective seems to back them up, constantly asserting that whoever is implementing the consequences is “being mean.” Oh, the guy who blew the whistle on the corrupt clinical trials is SUCH A JERK! he was supposed to BE HER FRIEND! And now her ADOPTION WON’T GO THROUGH because she’s unstable, so he COST HER HER BABY! Sure, ok. Not like she screwed herself in the adoption process by lying in a clinical trial, no siree. The guy who said “This is wrong” has to eventually come around and apologize to her. Freaking ridiculous.
I watched one of the recent episodes, with some friends, and the allegedly level-headed Dr. Bailey was being hounded by her anesthesiologist boyfriend to move in with him. He got himself switched to her surgery and harassed the crap out of her the whole time she was operating (because, you know, nothing says “I love you” like “‘No’ means nothing to me”); when she finally told him to stop because she likes to focus during surgery, she discovered that they had left a sponge inside the patient. He LAUGHED and was like “You’re focused, huh?” Like, uhhhh, she might have been if you weren’t hassling her about a personal matter, like she asked? I swear to god if any man ever interfered with my job or SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE, to harass me into doing ANYTHING, I would be filing a complaint with the board, trying to get him fired – I would certainly not be seeing any more of him. But no. The narrative structure of the story arc is: “Bailey is scared and needs to let people in. He loves her enough to force his way in. Awwww she’s going to agree to keep her toothbrush at his place at least, yay happy luv!” I almost puked from anger.
Honestly, probably the only worse scripted TV show on television is the spin-off, Private Practice.
Elizabeth–why would pro-choice folks have any regret? What IS gray about it, after all?
X, I love watching “Walking Dead,” which has also tackled the abortion issue. I can’t remember her name, but the sheriff’s wife asks one of the younger guys to get her the abortion drug on his next pharmacy run. Later, she eats the pills, leaving the packaging where her husband finds it, but she changes her mind, runs outside, and makes herself throw them up.
Her character already has a son, and all I could think of was, “Who cares which guy is the father, that baby is your kid’s brother or sister!”
i dont watch this show but i have hears a few blogs go nuts about how ugly and disgusting the actress who had the abortion is. maybe its cuz people detest abortion? mean yes but you cant allow your feelings to be hurt when you are on tv. anyway perhaps people began disliking her because of what her character did. but its fair of this show to show us that most couples do NOT last after abortion.
It is a major life decision and an unplanned pregnancy or abortion can be traumatizing or it can be just a blip on the radar. Neither mean that abortion is wrong, by the way. It means, like I said above, that sometimes we are dealt a tough hand in life and women need options for how to deal with that.
Be honest, Courtnay, you’re not asking me these questions because you actually want to hear my answer or have an honest discussion. You think these are “gotcha” questions and I can practically already type out your response when I read them. Just because something may be a hard decision doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a choice at all.
Heck ya, ninek!
I was just kinda peeved Rick didn’t take more of a hard-line with it than he did. But his reaction was still good. I’m just glad she finally came around. I’ve been pleased with the message ever since the CDC: life is worth fighting for, even when it sucks!!! :D
I may be the oddball here, but I can’t say I much of care about a fictional woman aborting her fictional pregnancy and whatever fictional repercussions are to be had because of it. I’m more concerned with real life.
It is a major life decision and an unplanned pregnancy or abortion can be traumatizing or it can be just a blip on the radar. Neither mean that abortion is wrong, by the way. It means, like I said above, that sometimes we are dealt a tough hand in life and women need options for how to deal with that.
“Neither mean that abortion is wrong.” maybe not, but what does is that before an abortion, there is a living human being gestating inside of his/her mother, and after an abortion, that human being is dead. THAT is what makes it wrong. And regardless of how comfortable the parent(s) is/are with having that child killed, it is STILL wrong. Women need options, but no person, man or woman, should have a legal option to kill their child just because having the child makes things difficult for them.
Spot on Jill, as always.
Crappy show though.
SomeGuy-
I think this is more about the societal acceptability of abortion and how it is portrayed in media in relation to the actual implications of abortion. It’s not that relevant, I agree, but how it is handled in popular media is a subtle indication of its status in society and how it is viewed by actual women and men-whether it is acceptable or unacceptable. ^_^
Elizabeth,
I have NEVER gotten over my abortion?
Wow. News to me.
Abortion is not something you “get over.” Like a breakup. My daughter died in the abortion I paid for. So I grieve her death and I own what I have done and I accept where my life is and I do the best I can to reach out to others who are struggling after their abortions and I heal a little bit more everyday as I carry it. 22 years later. I will regret it until the day I die BUT no longer drink or party or have nightmares or struggle with depression or suicidal thoughts. Ahhhh. Healing in the only ways I know how. Just because I am silent no more doesn’t mean I haven’t come to terms with the death of my daughter Aubrey. Acceptance.
You do make abortion sound nice though!! I mean we all have choices to make and decisions and well life is like that and we all just have to make the best of it and just move on cause there are gray areas and you just gotta do what you gotta do….
EXCEPT for the pesky little fact that a fully alive human being dies in an abortion!!!
Elizabeth–I appreciate your answering me. But I really DO want an answer.
What is the gray area about killing a child?
And then my next thought is, what do you have to tell yourself to believe that there actually is?
Have you ever carried a baby?
Carla–thinking of you, girl.
I just made a choice: veggie pasta soup or chicken rice?
I went with the veggie–that was a good choice.
Hey Courtnay!! :) I am prochoice on soup!!
Last weekend was Sanctity of Life. A young girl heard me tell my abortion story a few years ago. She got pregnant that summer and couldn’t get my words out of her head. She put her daughter up for adoption and I got to meet that sweet little princess and her adoptive mother!!
Amazing grace.
Carla! You saved a life! That child would be dead if it wasn’t for you! There is an adoptive couple somewhere in America who had their whole world saved by love because of you! The is a young woman who made the decision for life, who didn’t have her insides mangled because of you. You are my hero, and in a way, so is Aubrey….teaching us all the way from heaven.
Good for you, good by you. Rock on, you strong woman!
No man or woman “gets over” their abortion just like no one gets over being raped. We might live in denial for years in attempts to believe it really wasn’t all that bad. Then some of us forgive ourselves and others, accept the pain and loss, move on and help others heal.
Whether we make a choice in the traumatic event or not doesn’t change the fact that rape and abortion are traumatic. We don’t get over them because they should have never happened in the first place.
I had an unplanned pregnancy. I didn’t make a choice. I had no choice. Killing children is not a choice. I have a 5 year old son today.
My friend had an unplanned pregnancy. She aborted. She nearly drank herself to death. She had another unplanned pregnancy. She chose life. She now has a sweet little 4 year old girl. Thats the difference. First unplanned pregnancy… she has nothing from except regret. Second unplanned pregnancy she has a sweet little girl. There are no gray areas. One choice equals death. One choice equals life. Life and death. Not gray areas.
Oh thank God – I was seriously disappointed in ABC for the originally ep – and very glad to see the story continued.
Jespren says: January 27, 2012 at 12:34 pm YES! :))
Mark it. Later episodes will feature Owen as the selfish jerk/bad guy. >:(
Sydney M. says:
January 27, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Life and Death. No grey areas.
Amen
Courtnay,
Still processing what it all meant to me. Amazing. God is soooooo good!! He continues to redeem more of my pain.
I watched my daughter run down the halls of church playing with a little girl that was given life when I told the story of how I denied life to my little girl.
And later in the day received an email from the adoptive Grandmother saying THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! :)
I never watched this program, but it amazes me that you have a resident who is training to be a surgeon and SAVE lives – and then she takes the life of her child! It’s so beyond crazy. What’s grey about that? To do no harm must never enter into the equation.
I only saw a few eps. every now and then a few years back when I had a roommate who watched it – seemed to me though to just be a bunch of sex-crazed doctors who were always wrapped up in some drama or another – and every now and then they practiced medicine hah.
Carla,I bless you. You keep on speaking the truth. We got your back/
Jespren: Thank you MamaMT my habitual lack of tact makes describing things very easy
HAHAHAAAA! No matter what, Jespren, I know you’ve got a good heart. :)
xalisae: “Sex is certainly the LAST think I’d be thinking about and DEFINITELY the last thing I’d do in the event of a zombie apocalypse.”
If you suddenly see zombies approaching, it’s going to be hard to run away from them with your BVDs tangled up around your ankles.
If you suddenly see zombies approaching, it’s going to be hard to run away from them with your BVDs tangled up around your ankles.
Darn tootin’. ;P
my moms friend is a gp in florida and she sees a lady doctor. the doctor yaps away to moms friend about her abortion ( i have no idea when it was ) my mothers friend is a christian. this doctor told my moms friend a boyfriend talked her into it. my opinion? she feels guilty.
Hopefully your mom’s friend can lead the doctor to some help :\
yeah amber…i kinda screwed up that post. my moms friend in florida ( an 80 year old with her right mind ) sees a GP in bradenton florida. for whatever reason the doctor ( a lady ) always mentions her abortion to my moms friend. liz helped me. perhaps she could indeed lead this woman to healing.
This is the weird part about Grey’s. I’ve seen a distinct pro-life slant at nearly every turn (interlaced between all of the adultery and other crap going on). Mark (Eric Dane) has been in the middle of this, both with an illicit child when he was younger (who showed up when she, herself, was pregnant, after he had assumed her mother had aborted her years ago) and with his affair with Addison (Kate Walsh, who, sadly, is also a staunch supporter of PP). There was also a case where Izzy (Katherine Heigl) dealt with a couple who wanted an abortion due to the mother having HIV, and SURPRISINGLY does not recommend it and backs it up with evidence that the baby will likely NOT contract HIV when born, if properly treated. That last one shocked me.
Like I said, it’s weird.
As an avid fan of Grey’s, I do appreciate that the show encourages such controversy and dialogue, but I do have a few observations:
– I dislike the use of the term “abortion proponent” as a label for someone who is pro-choice. Individuals who are “pro-choice” are advocates for women to have the freedom to make their own decision. This is different from the “abortion proponent” which brings to mind an image of people cheering someone on to get an abortion.
– In response to “the advancing storyline”, I believe that it is a perfect representation of the possible aftermath of an abortion. With every choice comes consequences. Both parents of an aborted fetus will experience grief in different ways. Owen’s anger is a result of the initial disaccord between Christina and Owen regarding the decision to abort; he gave in to Christina and supported her in aborting a child which he wanted her to have. His failure to stand up for his needs and the couple’s failure to work as an effective team during the aftermath contribute to his anger; and I would guess that he’s angrier with himself than he is at Christina.
I watched a couple of seasons of Grey’s but stopped more than four years ago when I realised how immoral it was – think it was when George and the blonde got drunk while his wife was working night shift, and ended up sleeping together. That was the final straw for me. I’ve now stopped watching all tv except EWTN as most of the content on mainstream tv has an extremely high immoral content.
Leigh, I’ll reiterate here what I just posted in another thread:
Pro-Life offers choices too. And, the only difference between the choices that Pro-Life offers and the ones “Pro-Choicers” offer is abortion. Abortion kills a living human being. Killing = death. The opposite of death is life.
And I notice that any consideration for the dead human being who is the one actually killed in an abortion is conspicuously absent in your analysis. What, pray tell, could Own have actually done to save his child from being killed?
I’m a pro-life, retired ER RN. I stopped watching the show because it was so ridiculous. I can’t think of one character who would still have a license to practice medicine. Plus, I made a choice regarding the sexual tone of the show. Yes, people have affairs in every workplace, but I don’t need it on my TV. Abortion? Dear Lord, have Mercy.
I’ve now stopped watching all tv except EWTN as most of the content on mainstream tv has an extremely high immoral content.
I’ve been having cash flow problems, to put it mildly, and my cable was turned off. In my section of the city, no cable service means you can’t really get any channels. So right now I have no television. I missed it at first, but now I really don’t, because most of the stuff on is junk anyway. I have to pay the bill, of course, but I might just keep it off until football season starts again. There’s only a few shows I watch anyway: “Jeopardy,” “America’s Most Wanted,” and the news, and of course, watching my Bumbling Birds play.
Yeah we don’t have ‘tv’ either, no cable and no public access channels in the area. We save up a bit of money and buy the dvd sets of the series we like when the new year is released. And I have to say, it’s a lot more satisfying to just wait for the dvd and watch the season as we will, no stupid commercials! I miss some stuff, like National Geographic specials and Discover science shows, but in general buying dvds at $25-$50 a pop once a year makes more sense. There’s really only a couple of shows we both like anyway.
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Thou shalt not kill…. that includes your own child