As more and more red states attempt to outlaw a woman’s right to choose an abortion, strategies to resist these new laws are drawing attention, especially within the entertainment community.
Most of the focus has been centered on Georgia after HB 481, given the level of film and television production done in the state due to tax incentives. The majority of Marvel Studio’s MCU films have, at least in part, been filmed in Georgia. Cartoon Network, and its Adult Swim lineup of shows such as Rick & Morty, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., etc., is headquartered out of Atlanta. The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Ozark, and more are all filmed in Georgia, creating about 100,000 jobs and $4.6 billion in wages. Last year, conservatives in Georgia engendered widespread backlash when they attempted to allow discrimination against LGBT couples in the realms of adoption and foster care if done out of “religious belief,” which led companies such as Disney, Apple, Fox, Time Warner, Netflix, the NFL, and Sony to threaten pulling money out of the state if it became law.
HB 481 has put Hollywood productions back in the same spot of deciding how to respond, especially with there now being labor considerations since the law potentially makes female crew members working in Georgia subject to a second-degree murder charge if they suffer a miscarriage during a shoot. However, this time around there’s also been considerably more debate over whether an economic boycott of the state is the best strategy. While there are dozens of actors, performers, and producers vowing not to work in Georgia, unlike with LGBT discrimination, so far none of the major studios are threatening to leave over the abortion politics in the state. Others have argued a boycott would “hurt workers who didn’t ask for women’s bodily autonomy to be stripped and don’t support this regressive policy,” and some producers are justifying staying in the state by saying they’ve been contacted by “people locally, and specifically women of color, who are saying, ‘Don't leave us.’” A third option is what Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams have decided to do, wherein “100 percent of the episodic fees” for their Georgia-based television production will be donated to the ACLU of Georgia and Fair Fight Georgia, the voting reform group of former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams who has asked the industry for support on the ground to “transform the political system.”
While thinking about how Hollywood should respond to how abortion is treated here in the real world, I thought it might be interesting to look at how it has been treated in the not-so-real worlds of film and television. A common criticism of how American culture treats sex in media is how people have a much lower threshold for watching someone’s head being cut off than seeing naked bodies. The history of film and television has been one where depictions and discussions of sex had to be done obliquely at times (e.g., married couples with double beds), created a system which ignored the existence of significant parts of the populace or turned their sexual desires into stereotypes, and has long been the subject of controversy over concepts of objectification, body image, and the fair treatment of women and women’s issues both in front of and behind the camera.
Abortion is an aspect of those women’s issues, since one in four women will have an abortion before the age of 45, but it’s also an issue which can make even people who claim to be pro-choice uncomfortable in either acknowledging or discussing the topic. So it’s interesting to see how it has been handled over the years as a story concept in fiction.
One of the biggest criticisms of how writers use abortion is that it is dangled as a false choice for any pregnancy narrative, where abortion is used as something to choose against.
It’s not a big revelation what occurs in television and on film doesn’t match reality. That’s true of many, many things, whether it be movies about big rocks hitting Earth, or criminal procedure in legal dramas. But just like people have false impressions of war or mental illness based on what they’ve seen or read, over the years there have been varying studies done on the topic of how abortion is depicted in media, and whether it has an affect on societal attitudes. The general consensus from these studies indicates films and television shows convey some notions about what an abortion is, who gets abortions, and why women do that just isn’t true.
- Access to abortions seems easy and simple: An analysis of 89 television plot lines from 2005 to 2015 found that in both sitcoms and dramas, women deciding on an abortion are almost never shown facing the growing number of legal restrictions or limited clinic choices which exist in reality, and force some to drive hundreds of miles to receive access to medical care. This gets into whether the public is even well informed about some of those restrictions, like mandatory burial of fetal tissue, and their consequences.
Tracy Droz Tragos, who directed the HBO documentary Abortion: Stories Women Tell, suggests that scripted shows go to places like North Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas, "where women’s access to affordable health care is never easy and sometimes is nonexistent," she says. "I think it's time to tell some of the really tough stories, stories of women who simply give up. What are the implications when women are unable to finish school, to find work, to hold jobs, to move out of poverty, to escape abusive relationships, to continue living in communities where they are shunned—and are desperate enough to take matters into their own hands."
"I'd love to see characters who better mirror our patients," says Julie Burkhart, founder and CEO of Trust Women Foundation, which operates Trust Women South Wind Women’s Center clinics in Wichita, Kansas, and Oklahoma City. "These women often scramble to borrow money. Some have to drive hours to see us. About 70 percent are mothers simply trying to make the best decision for the children they already have, and they must endure protesters who pressure them to reconsider. In Wichita there is only one cab company that will bring patients to our clinic. This is what abortion is like in our part of the country."
- Abortion is depicted as far more dangerous than it actually is: If CPR is usually shown to be far more effective than it actually is in medical dramas, then abortion is usually made to seem as a life altering event with dangerous potential. An analysis of 310 abortion-related plotlines in film and television between 1912 to 2013 found 13.5 percent of the stories ended with the death of the woman who considered an abortion, either directly from the procedure or indirectly by other means. This becomes problematic when considering one of the ways conservative politicians have attempted to curtail access to abortions has been questions about “safety” in procedures. Five states require medical professions performing abortions to state there is a link between breast cancer and abortion, even though no evidence exists of any relationship between the two. Just last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released a report which found 90 percent of all abortions happen in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, complications for all abortions are "rare," and stated the four major methods used for abortions—medication, aspiration, dilation and evacuation, and induction—produced no long-term consequences on women's physical and mental health.
- Young, wealthy white women get abortions on TV: A look at almost 80 television plotlines between 2005 and 2014 found 87 percent of the women were white, and 82 percent of those characters come from upper and middle-class backgrounds. In reality, white women only account for 36 percent of the abortions performed, and 40 percent of the women seeking abortions are living below the poverty line. The study also found the women in television abortion stories are usually depicted as being young, childless, and the decision to have an abortion predicated on one to free up future life choices and preserve upward mobility. Therefore, if one received their ideas about abortion through media, the notion of older white women or women of color choosing abortion out of financial hardship or its impact on their existing children is something that is not really represented as being a possible choice.
Generally, the underrepresentation of certain populations of women considering abortion onscreen could contribute to feelings of internalized stigma or isolation among real women who obtain abortions but do not see themselves or their experiences represented in popular culture. For example, the dearth of Latina and black characters shown obtaining abortions may convey the idea that women of color do not need or willingly get abortions … Taken together, this pattern of reasons can contribute to the construction of abortion as a self-focused decision and to the belief that abortions are ‘wanted’ because of personal desires rather than ‘needed’ because of circumstances such as poverty.
Among some of the more notable examples of abortion in television and film:
- The NBC soap opera Another World is one of the first television series to depict abortion as part of a 1964 storyline in which a woman (Susan Trustman) shoots and kills the man who impregnanted her, after the resulting abortion—referred to as an “illegal operation”—goes awry and leaves her unable to bear children. When the character is brought to trial, she is ultimately acquitted and ends up marrying her defense attorney.
- What originally began as a story about a vasectomy to win a $10,000 prize from a group advocating stories about population control, eventually evolved into one of the most memorable story arcs for Maude. The initial incarnation would have see Maude (Bea Arthur) consoling her pregnant neighbor Vivian (Rue McClanahan), leading into a discussion of contraception and whether Walter, Maude’s husband (Bill Macy), would get a vasectomy. It eventually evolved to being about what 47-year-old Maude would do when confronted with pregnancy, the option of abortion, and what that would mean for her life. The initial run of the two episodes titled “Maude’s Dilemma” was broadcast by all but two of CBS’ affiliates, and garnered almost 7,000 letters in protest. When the episodes were repeated in the summer of 1973, pressure from anti-choice activists resulted in 40 affiliates refusing to broadcast the program, and not a single corporate sponsor bought commercial time.
The two-part ''Maude`s Dilemma'' was broadcast Nov. 14 and 21, 1972, although not without some network trepidation. ''They were very nervous, to say the least,'' said Parker. ''The thing we had going for us was that `Maude` was a hit, so the network said OK. But they requested we give another side, so we (wrote) in a neighbor who had a lot of children and was very happy.'' … ''The amount of mail was incredible,'' Bea Arthur said in an interview. ''I can`t call it hate mail, although there were a few that said, `Die, die,` but most were intelligent people who were deeply offended, and very emotional about it. I think the problem was I had become some sort of Joan of Arc for the middle-aged woman. People were saying it was so refreshing a woman came along who was a real woman, not like Donna Reed, and I think when I came out with this, it was almost treasonous, a personal attack.''
Despite the protests, the shows attracted a huge audience. In an era before cable TV and home video, the episodes averaged 41 percent of the viewing audience. Not only were they No. 1 in their time period, but they also catapulted the series into the Nielsen ratings Top 10. CBS estimated that as many as 65 million people watched at least one of the episodes, either first-run or in rerun. That figure represented nearly one-third of the American population.
“Now, it’s a first season show, it was nine years earlier or whatever, and the network freaked out a little bit,” Rhimes said. “No one told me I couldn’t do it, but they could not point to an instance in which anyone had. And I sort of panicked a little bit in that moment and thought maybe this isn’t the right time for the character, we barely know her… I didn’t want it to become like what the show was about.”
And thus, come season two, rather than have the abortion she had been planning, Yang suffered an ectopic pregnancy. She experienced a fate similar to that of many hesitant television protagonists who had come before — and would certainly follow.
“And it bugged me,” said Rhimes ... “It bugged me for years.”
- Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth depicts the abortion debate as one dominated by fanatics on both sides. The black comedy is centered around Ruth (Laura Dern), a drug addict, fuck up mother of four who has seen all of the children taken away from her by the state to be placed in better homes, since she can’t take care of them or herself. When Ruth is arrested for drug possession,the character learns she’s pregnant. The judge in Ruth’s case suggest he might be more lenient to her if Ruth aborts the pregnancy. This makes Ruth a pawn in the battle between pro and anti-choice advocates which continues to escalate.
- The Patrick Swayze-Jennifer Grey classic Dirty Dancing uses a botched, illegal abortion as the impetus to put the two leads together and kick off the romantic relationship. The story of the 1987 film has Jerry Orbach’s character sneer at his money being used to send a woman “in trouble” sent to a “butcher,” but interestingly neither the character or the movie looks down on a woman for wanting that choice, and instead holds the men who put them in that position as the ones accountable.
- The character of Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, is impregnated by a flake of a guy. Stacy is left to deal with the issue and her decision to have an abortion herself, after Mike Damone (Robert Romanus) fails to live up to his promise of paying half the cost for the procedure, and doesn’t even show up to give her a ride to the clinic. The situation within the movie is exacerbated by Stacy later witnessing a demonstration of babies being born at a nearby hospital, which leads to the character experiencing enormous guilt for her decision. Directed by Amy Heckerling and adapted from the book of the same name authored by Cameron Crowe, there are a few differences between how the abortion is treated in one medium to the other.
In the film, this sequence is refreshing in a number of ways: It's frank (surprisingly so, for a sex comedy), it's brief rather than being a wallow in miserablism or humiliation, and it's up-front both about the fact that abortion can be depressing, scary, and off-puttingly clinical, but that it doesn't necessarily serve as a life-changing moral experience that makes people stop wanting sex. In other words, it's fairly realistic about the emotional impact and the experience itself.
Crowe's original version is about the same–but with a lot more detail, both about the lead-up and the procedure. In the film, Damone (who got Stacy pregnant) agrees to help pay for the abortion and to drive Stacy to the clinic, but he never shows up to drive her, seemingly embarrassed about the whole thing and uncomfortable with the cost. In the book, they fight about the pregnancy. ("You made me do it!" he whines about the sex. "You wanted it more than me!") He stands her up. She reschedules. Damone stands her up again, paralyzed with panic and immaturity. ("All he wanted to do was go away, forget about this problem. Why wouldn't it just go away? Why did it fall on him? She'd had just as much fun as he; it was her responsibility, too. Things like this weren't supposed to happen when you had The Attitude.") Finally, Stacy goes on her own, and Crowe dedicates a couple of careful pages to what an abortion is like, and how Stacy feels during and afterward.
Which is one of the few places where the book seems to have a clear agenda: To let people vicariously experience something they might never endure in real life. Take it as a warning, as an exercise in empathy for young sexually active males, or whatever else, Crowe is unflinching and rational about it, much as he is with the rest of the book. He doesn't judge, and he doesn't editorialize. It's the one part of the book that's probably better off without his intruding personal voice.
- The fourth episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s second season depicts Paula Proctor (Donna Lynne Champlin), the paralegal to protagonist Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom), deciding to abort her pregnancy when considering the effect it will have on her husband, two children, and her aspiration to start law school. Instead of being a decision which becomes the source of screaming, guilt, and psychological damage, the abortion (which is not even shown in the program) is treated in a matter-of-fact tone with the character’s entire family being supportive.
- In the fourth season of Sex and the City, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) discovers she’s pregnant after an encounter with an ex-boyfriend. After deciding to have an abortion, she reveals to the other ladies. Samantha (Kim Cattrall) acts like it’s no big deal, since she’s “had two.” Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) tells Miranda she had an abortion at 22, and while she doesn’t regret it, she still doesn’t feel “normal” about it. This ultimately ends with Miranda deciding to keep the pregnancy at the last moment.
- Both Juno and Knocked Up can’t really function as stories if the characters chose to have an abortion, but both films engendered considerable debate about how abortion is presented as an option to the female characters. An abortion is referred to as a “shmashmortion” in Knocked Up, and some have argued the option is presented in the worst possible way in the film as “a really horrible thing to do” by awful people. In Juno, the titular character (Ellen Page) attempt to have an abortion finds her fleeing a clinic after encountering a protester which tells her that “fetuses have fingernails” (they don’t at that stage of pregnancy), and an uncaring, indifferent environment within the clinic. Diablo Cody, who wrote Juno and won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for it in 2008, has stated recently she is unsure if she would even write the story in the current environment.
Cody said that recent events in Georgia and Alabama—where state legislatures have spurred liberal backlash by passing some of the country’s most restrictive abortion bills—have made her uncertain about how she would handle Juno today.
“I don’t even know if I would have written a movie like Juno if I had known that the world was going to spiral into this hellish alternate reality that we now seem to be stuck in,” the Oscar winner said. “The Georgia thing is horrifying ... it sucks so fucking bad … I think I probably would have just told a different story in general,” she said. “When I wrote it—first of all, I didn’t think it would ever be a film ... I wasn‘t thinking as an activist; I wasn’t thinking politically at all.”
She also acknowledged that the “most horrifying thing” to come out of the movie‘s success “was me getting a letter from my Catholic high school thanking me for writing a pro-life movie. And I was like, I fucking hate all of you. And I’m as pro-choice as a person can possibly be.”