Young mothers are all the rage on TV these days, whether their real lives are being wrenchingly chronicled on Teen Mom, their struggles are being […] Read the full post.
Oct 12
2010
08:00 AM ET
Is abortion no longer too taboo for TV?
- Comments 87
- Add comment
Latest News
- 'Arrested Development': We'll binge/recap
- Memorial Day TV marathons: What's on
- Fox reality boss Mike Darnell steps down
- TV season finales: EW grades
- 'Blue Is the Warmest Color': Cannes review
- 'Arrested Development': Funkes in town!
- Jimmy Kimmel: Not the 'Nude Bea' buyer
- 'Fast & Furious': 5 films in 1 day?!
In the 60′s Another World had Pat Matthews (played by Susan Trustman, a Carnegie Tech alum) obtain an abortion because the father didn’t want to marry her. Afterward she kept hearing a baby crying. . .lots of guilt!
It seems like, from alot of the comments here, abortion has been discussed on shows before, but not many women actually went through with the abortions on television shows. To me, that’s the big difference in recent years- acknowledging that women do choose to go through with it, and showing what that situation is like.
I totally agree. In most of the shows cited, it’s women who talk about/plan for an abortion and then either a). changed their minds at the last minute or b). miscarry (for example: Christina in Grey’s Anatomy). Kudos to shows for not just having the conversation, but having the woman actually go through the procedure!
TV shows to misscarriages as a ‘safe end to story’. Did it on ‘Party of 5′ with Neve Campbell, and many others.
How about showing a woman give up baby for adoption/ There are many infertile couples who would love to do so. To abort since women ‘cant accept that a child I bore would be out there’ is selfish.
TOTALLY NOT COOL THAT YOU PUT THE PICTURE OF JOAN ON YOUR FRONT PAGE WITH THIS TITLE. DON’T HAVE AMC, WAITING FOR THE SEASON 4 DVD. BUT NOW A BIG PLOT POINT HAS BEEN SPOILED. NOT COOL.
Watch the dam show when its on! The world can’t wait for the DVR Hoarders or cheapskates to watch shows months later.
Seriously, EW. You should know by not to write articles about current entertainment topics! This Shawshank person won’t see what everyone is talking about until months down the road! You should really take this one person’s viewing habits into consideration before trying to be current!!!
Shawshank, that’s silly.
But if it makes you feel better, we don’t know for sure whether she kept the baby or had an abortion.
Biggest problem with teen pregnacy is the age old “Everyone is doing it” and that virgins are not ‘cool’. Boys are pressured to ‘get laid’ and they tell girls anything to get them to say ‘yes’. “Oh baby I love you
forever”
HS kids are too young to be hookin up and thinking that ‘cute guy/chick’ is “the one”! Wait to get serious partner till 18+.
Also, kids should know facts of life at 12, including birth control. But also girls should know boys are into them mostly for sex, not ‘love’.
I still think we have a long way to go. Beck is just one one girl, on one show (albeit a very good show) out of a lot of shows. Notice how Joan “seemingly” got an abortion (not crystal clear), and that the character from Secret Life ended up not having an abortion. And I think it’s necessary to not gloss over the yanked episode from Family Guy. We still have a long way to come.
P.S. The girl on Everwood was not only killed off the show after having an abortion; she wasn’t even part of the lead cast.
Anyone else remember the second season of the Real World in LA when one of the cast got an abortion? That was very real and showed the emotional and physical toll.
I saw the Friday Night Lights episode and knew it was an episode taking on a controversial subject, with no idea of how it would end. By my count, it was the third time the show tackled the subject of an unwanted pregnancy.
This particular episode told a story where an isolated young girl who had an unwanted pregnancy after one time, her first time. The decision to have an abortion was different than the other 2 story lines.
Who actually made the decision (as she was a minor), who influenced her decision … were part of a textured, nuanced story that ultimately left the viewer to decipher what led to the decision to have an abortion. In other words, the writers left a lot ‘off camera’ with many questions and feelings left unanswered. As a regular viewer, I still don’t know for certain.
The so-called Family Guy “abortion episode” was the first thing that popped into my mind during this weekend’s episode when they made a quick, one-line incestuous-molestation “joke.” Way to CHOOSE your humor, Fox (pun intended)!
I think Amy, myself and other
defenders of life can withstand the namecalling from pro choicers.
Just remember for any reason we will defend your right to life.
All My Children thought they were ground breakers by having Erica have an abortion, but then re-wrote history by saying she actually HAD the baby who grew to be a long lost son, how she managed to be on screen without showing or delivering is a whole different story.
Actually, the Bible says that life begins at first breath. It mentions the miraculous response of Elizabeth’s fetus to the presence of Mary and the fact that God knew that David would be a great person once he was born, and anti-choicers like to twist God’s word as an excuse to sexually enslave women. People used to do that to show that slavery was “Biblical” as well. Same methods, almost the same cause.
Having an abortion or not is still a legal choice, but getting harder to accomplish. I liked the recent story in Private Practice, where Addison pounts out that there’s 300 million Americans, and only 1700 abortion providers, and they no longer teach the protocol in med school. And don’t get pregnant in the Dakotas. They’re making it even more difficult by instituting laws that make it as difficult as possible to exercise choice. Difficult already, since there’s only one provider available.
Re: Becky in FNL-her mother was the biggest influence in her decision to abort. The mother wanted more for her daughter than she herself had had, due to having her daughter as a teenager.
What about the late term pregnancy on Private Practice?