The A-Word

Supposedly, a quarter of the pregnancies in the United States end in abortion each year. Who are those women? Where are those women? Here’s one place they’re not—in popular culture. In the last two weeks, I saw two well-reviewed films: Waitress, a small independent film written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly (who also plays a supporting role), and Knocked-Up, the Judd Apatow comedy. Both of these comedies turn on the consequences of unwanted pregnancy. In the former, the lead character, Jenna (played by Keri Russell), is an abused and unhappy wife and waitress who is dismayed to be pregnant, as she had been planning an escape from her thug of a husband. She then begins an affair with her obstetrician, has the baby, finds the strength to leave her husband and becomes the owner of a pie shop (her skill at pie making is a significant theme in the film). In Knocked Up, the lead character, Alison (played by Katherine Heigl of Grey’s Anatomy fame), is impregnated by a one night stand with an oafish slacker, Ben, played by Seth Rogan. She elects to go through with the pregnancy and embarks on a campaign to get to know the father so that he can participate. In rom-com style, they have a variety of travails but end up happily together, with the new baby, at the conclusion of the film.

No one ever utters the word abortion in either one of these films, although, without using the word, Ben’s friends do raise the possibility when he reveals his situation to them. Indeed, one review of Knocked Up that I read claims that this moment in the film is a riff on how the word cannot be spoken in popular culture, although I found that moment so subtle as to be almost unrecognizable. Alison’s mother, hilariously played by Joanna Kerns, also raises the issue, again without naming it. So here’s my question—is it really a choice if you can’t even say it? Neither central character in either film articulates a thoughtful rationale for having a baby, and Alison’s response to her mother’s implicit suggestion that she abort her pregnancy is a kind of muted exasperated outrage, but it is unaccompanied by any articulated opposition to the idea of abortion. It’s so unacceptable that, not only can it not be uttered, it doesn’t even have to be argued against. It’s a non-option.

If either of these characters had an abortion, the film would have to be largely about justifying that choice, not to mention that the film would be hard to write as a comedy. Instead, both decide to have babies, a choice that requires no sustained justification at all but makes for great comedy. Indeed, they don’t even really decide—the viewer sees no deliberation. When deliberation does occur, it’s about how to manage the pregnancy, and both films pretty much end with the birth (and isn’t that just the way it is in life as well? Those abortion foes are deeply concerned that you keep your pregnancy, but when it becomes an actual child, you’re on your own).

Why don’t more women on TV and in movies have abortions? Well, on TV it might mean the loss of sponsor dollars and just asking for a whole lotta trouble that producers and networks don’t want. But for both, it also means that you have a great deal of work to do making a female character sympathetic. Because we live in a rampantly pro-natal culture (think about the incessant attention paid to celebrity babies, not to mention pregnancy rumors) that works, wittingly or not, to shore up the Right’s anti-choice discourse. And here are the basic contentions of that discourse: 1) You shouldn’t have sex at all unless you are prepared to be a parent (which is functionally the same as saying that women do not have sexual freedom—and let’s not forget that much of the Right isn’t just against abortion, it’s against contraception as well), 2) Once you have a child, a mysterious mother-love kicks in, and you will never regret it. The corollary to this is that all women are suited for mothering, even if they don’t think so (because what do they know, anyway? Don’t we have abortion and contraception regulation precisely because  they can’t be trusted to make their own decisions?), 3) Parenting is the most important work anyone ever does, and it is always worth it, even if it means the derailing of educational and/or work ambitions, and 4) Abortion is a selfish and unworthy act that nice, healthy girls don’t do (kinda helps clarify those exceptions--for rape, incest, and “health of the mother”--that some anti-choicers support, doesn’t it?). If you have an abortion because a baby doesn’t fit in your life plan (which is what most abortions are about), you are automatically “not a nice girl.”

A few years ago, feminist Jennifer Baumgardner produced a film titled “I had An Abortion” (www.speakoutfilms.com) which attempted to counter the rising tide of right –wing discourse about abortion coercion, abortion regret, and the need for post-abortion therapy by presenting multiple stories from women who had no regrets at all (around the same time, another feminist launched www.imnotsorry.net as a place for women to share their stories). But it’s still a hard sell. Baumgartner also produced “I had an abortion” t-shirts, and sold hundreds of them out of her apartment in New York. Yet, around that time, I had the occasion to have a conversation with an extremely well known, very leftist, feminist writer who told me, with some regret, that she could not bring herself to wear one. It just felt too risky to her. Frankly, I don’t know that I could either, outside the context of a pro-choice rally. Why? Because I would be afraid not just that people would look at me differently (because that t-shirt would make it clear that I am not a nice girl), but that complete strangers might come up to me and attack me. It’s a dirty word, no question about it.

We (and by “we” I mean pro-choice supporters) are losing this battle—call it the stigma battle-- in the war for reproductive freedom, and popular culture reflects that by giving us movies about unwanted pregnancies in which terminating those pregnancies cannot even be discussed lest we lose sympathy for their lead characters. Forgive the pun, but abortion has indeed become a character issue. Nice people don’t have one, if they do they don’t admit it, and even those who claim to support abortion politically find it necessary to attenuate their support, lest they look less than “nice” as well. More than one friend has said to me, “I’m pro-choice, but I don’t think abortion should be used as birth control.” To which my response is, “it is birth control, it’s always birth control, that’s exactly what it is.” Assuming that they don’t mean it shouldn’t be used as a contraceptive (which, if you know what the word means, is impossible), what I think they mean is some combination of the following: people shouldn’t have multiple abortions, they shouldn’t have abortions instead of practicing other methods of birth control or contraception, or they shouldn’t have abortions for the wrong reasons (like simply finding a baby inconvenient). So abortion is becoming a synonym for irresponsibility? Here’s another idea: how about if all men behind on their child support were required to wear an “I’m a deadbeat dad” t-shirt until they pay up?

Here’s the thing: It’s a right or it’s not. When it’s a right you don’t have to apologize for exercising it. If you support that right, then it’s not your business why anyone might exercise it. If you can’t keep yourself from interrogating and/or judging the reasons why someone might have an abortion, then you don’t really support reproductive freedom. You just don’t—own up to it. And if you think you’re not playing right into the hands of those who would like abortion to become so unspeakable that it is outlawed entirely, you’re dead wrong.

Comments

[S&F]

Interesting take, but I disagree.

I find abortion repugnant, but for whatever reason some women feel desperate enough to take this avenue. I wouldn't take the option from them, that doesn't mean I have to sing and dance about it.

I'm all about free speech, that doesn't mean I don't still consider Fred Phelps a douche.

If you made people like me who are reluctant allies absolutely pick pro-abortion or pro-life and demanded we love our position...I think you'd tilt public opinion in a way you don't want to go.

[Heather]

I also saw Knocked Up this week. Regardless of whether or not once considers abortion a right, it's not exactly fodder for comedy, unless it's of the Andrew Dice Clay variety. I thought it was implied she had wrestled with the idea when she called Ben to say she was keeping the baby. Again, I'd be a little annoyed for paying 8 bucks to sit in an uncomfortable seat expecting comedy and sitting through a cry fest or a logical breakdown of the pros and cons. I'd feel differently about a serious movie

"Get it taken care of" has always been an obvious euphemism for abortion, in both light and dark films.

[Daniel]

S&F makes an extremely relevant political point. While it may be true that cultural conservatives have succeeded in making parts of this debate radioactive, it's also true that Americans generally support abortion rights, with an asterisk. That asterisk represents late-term abortions, which are both rare and utterly unsupported by the electorate, plus a generalized ambivalence that says "we support the right, but we don't like it being used as casual birth control."

So, yes, both sides run something of a risk when they ask people for an all-or-nothing commitment to an absolute (right: fetus is sacrosanct; left: choice is sacrosanct). Which is why I feel very hands-off on abortion debates right now: polls show Americans are uncomfortable with the subject and might want to doodle in the margins, but generally support the status quo.

To Heather: I don't think BD is arguing for more abortion humor. I think her point is that the abortion topic has become so taboo that our cultural references to it have to be coded, that knowledge of a woman's abortion history is so charged with judgment that it paints her character in primary colors rather than subtle hues.

And in this I think BD raises an interesting point. There are women all across America who've had an abortion and pick up on these cultural "shame cues." So they're living with ambient shame for exercising a legal right. That's quite a conflicted situation, yet another example of the contrast between our inner reality and our public personnas.

[Heather]

I didn't think she was arguing for more abortion style humor, I just felt it seemed a strange example of a place to look for a serious consideration of abortion. It's a pretty heavy subject for a comedy.

[Taylor]

On Sex and the City years ago, they had an episode that dealt with this topic. Miranda accidentally got pregnant, and when she went to have the abortion, she decided not to go through with it. However, in the same episode, the shows Herione admitted that she had an abortion once and Samantha admitted she had two.

And I remember being so shocked that they were talking about abortion, which is especially odd, because most women have at least been in a position where they thought it was a choice they would have to make. I've never had an abortion, because I've been lucky, but I've definently THOUGHT I was pregnant a number of times, and I've agonized over the decision.

But you're right. It simply doesn't exist in popular culture. Even in my own world, I find it hard to actually use the word. I, who am virulently pro-choice, coudn't even say the word to my best friend who actually HAD an abortion. How crazy is that? I've started trying to use the word abortion, instead of a euphemism, if it ever comes up, and I have to admit I get a satisfied feeling when I see the minor shock on people's faces when I say it. Society needs to be able to say the word before we can hae a reasonable discussion about the issue.

And as a side note, I read an article with the writer of Knocked Up and he said that he wasn't encouraging people not to have abortions, but, as he put it, it would be a short movie if she didn't have the baby. I get the idea that he was somwhat uncomfortable with people thinking that he was advocating one choice or another based on his very silly comedy.

[Alison]

BD, I loved this post. I agree with you completely about the stigma and shame surrounding abortion, which is why I've started speaking out (probably obnoxiously often, these days) about my own abortion. I have one of the "I had an abortion" shirts, and I've worn it to escort women into the abortion clinic in Charleston (and let me assure you that you do get some very hostile looks when you're wearing that shirt in any mainstream context).

I think it's increasingly important for women who have had abortions and who are in a position where they feel able to do so to speak out. 43% of us have had them--this is a lot of women. I'm happy to give up the "nice girl" label if giving it up allows me to make decisions about my own life.

[Spibby]

I haven't seen either of these movies yet, but I believe I've read enough about them to join in. That plus BD's brilliant framing of the issue and commentary on the discursive stakes.

I'd just like to add two points to what BD and a few others have said regarding the "comedy" aspects of talking about abortion. First, I agree with BD that the issue isn't so much stifled by the comedy genre itself, but by of what people are doing with it. Or, more specifically, what they are *not* doing with it, which is providing socially progressive messages. I love the other Apatow movies I've seen, but they are more about pushing the "gross" envelope than anything.

Probably the best (and maybe only) example of a funny movie that dealt with abortion openly (very openly) is Cameron Crowe's brilliant "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," where the JJL character has an abortion, and she and PC take some measure of revenge on the deadbeat dad in the film. Those scenes are not played for yuks, but are shown as scenes from a day in the life. So, it can be done. Not only can abortion be discussed in a comedy, in can be done in highly reflective and "aware" manner.

But BD's right -- pop culture could talk about abortion, but does not. My second point I'd add brings the genre element back in. It's not that abortion is anathema to comedy films, as Crowe proved, but rather that contemporary comedies are all about people not being able to make decisions. The rhetoric of abortion is, of course, centered around the word "choice," implying intent and action. The "slacker comedies" of late are about people who are largely inactive, suffering lives of quiet desperation of their own making. Everything works out in the end, but not because anyone made a decision other than to just keep going down the paved road. The characters are quirky and rough at the edges, but the ending is always "happy." (The class issues are pretty big here, as well, as these characters typically are comfortably situated already, making their inaction seem less like laziness than ennui -- they're entitled to their inaction.). The most action that takes place is Character A chasing Character B at the end and then they get together. But this is just punctuation.

Maybe what's missing from contemporary comedies are characters that are complex enough to make decisions.

[so many movies...]

Citizen Ruth. 1996. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Ruth
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115906/

[jmsloop]

BD asked that I alert readers to the following article in Sunday's NYT relevant to her post.

[Tim]

From NYT: "Nearly two-thirds of unwanted pregnancies end in abortion, data from federal surveys shows."

Can someone help me out with this? Where does this stat come from?

Is this a new statistic from the The National Campaign (p. 4, Fig. 6, pdf)?

Best I can tell, Guttmacher disagrees and I can't get there using the NCHS/CDC federal data (p. 154, Table 16, pdf) either.

From NYT: "Many conservative bloggers have claimed “Knocked Up” as an anti-choice movie, in part because the movie never presents abortion as a serious option."

Who? How many is "many"?

[toast]

i agree that abortion is generally not a festive entertainment topic. as a woman, i know plenty of women who've had one or more for various significant reasons, and not all of those were desperate in their decision-making process.

perhaps abortion is not a common theme generally because it is a very sensitive issue personally, religiously and politically. it's worth noting also that miscarriages, vasectomies, hysterectomies, still births, circumcision, D&C's for non-abortion events, etc. are also generally not typical topical fodder. it's not so much denial of their reality and impact as a testimony to the disquiet that can surround them i think.

is it popular entertainment's divine mandate to represent life in all it's statistically accurate glory?