Hollywood Does Abortion
After the civil rights protests of the 1960s and massive movements in the country supporting progressivism, the passage of Roe v Wade seemed an inevitability. However, the “moral majority,” which supported the crook in the White House that would have been impeached if he didn’t resign, had a hard time swallowing abortion legalization within fifty states. After its passage, they worked, plotted, and planned to overturn it. Despite the Supreme Court affirming the 14th Amendment’s due process clause, which ensures a woman’s right to privacy, that didn’t matter. Playing it safe, Hollywood, to ensure its profits, tread carefully, so TV, with a conservative stance, barely dealt with it honestly.
The world premiere of the feature documentary Hollywood Does Abortion, which screened at Tribeca, highlights the entertainment industry’s shifting perspectives. Since the 1970s, Hollywood has clearly shaped and reflected public viewpoints on the medical procedure and its users. Still reeling from the loss of a 49-year-old law that gave women and men the right to make decisions about their bodies, people will find the film both historical and hopeful. In examining reproductive justice and the influence of American entertainment, the film chronicles how progress turned retrograde. This occurred on steroids after a Hollywood B actor became the religious right’s champion against gay rights and pro-choice decisions.
The directors interview writers
Using interviews with writers who worked in writers’ rooms on TV shows like Law and Order and Grey’s Anatomy, and on films like Dirty Dancing, the filmmakers chronicle how the entertainment industry dealt with abortion over the decades. Directors Barbara and Mike Attie, and Janet Goldwater, begin with Adrienne Barbeau. She starred as the daughter of Bea Arthur as Maud in the titular show Maud. The episode they bring up concerns Maud discovering she’s pregnant at 47, in the two-part episode “Maud’s Dilemma.” After discussions with family, Maud, a grandmother, decides to get the abortion.
The controversial episode drew protest letters and boycotts from CBS affiliates during reruns. Nevertheless, the pre-Roe landmark episode pushed by Norman Lear aired two months before the court legalized abortion nationwide. Norman Lear, who had the pulse of the times, uplifted human rights with all his shows. Most of the country appreciated it. Republican conservatives who lost their power bloc intended to get it back.
What gets the tough topic of abortion off the page onto the screen?
Certainly, laughter mitigated a tough topic and helped it get past rigid, fearful conservative Republicans, either CEOs or on the Boards of mainstream TV networks. And Lear made the network money. Money talks. Also, laughter helped ease the acceptance of a tough topic about Maud. So did dancing. In Dirty Dancing (1987), writer Eleanor Bergstein says producers told her to cut the abortion scenes. She told them she couldn’t. The scenes, instrumental to the plot development, put Johnny Castle and Babe together. If they removed Johnny’s dance partner, who needed an abortion, the story changed completely. The music, dancing, and romance between Baby and Johnny Castle centered the story, not the abortion.
In 1987, however, the producer’s resistance revealed the changing tide of conservative money. Just five years before, with Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Jennifer Jason Lee’s Stacy goes to a clinic, has an abortion, and no parental judgment, grief, or stress happens. She makes her own decisions about her life, future career, and body. The writers, the Atties and Goldwater, and others, interviewed others who pointed out that abortion decisions often happen as a part of routine life, as in the film. But that natural element of a young woman making her own choice didn’t last in films or on TV. Conservatives pushed back and used TV and films to promote fear about abortions instead of safety.
Reagan’s Hollywood influence
Reagan’s evangelicals and Jerry Falwell created a furor about the religious aspects of abortion. Ignoring the Biblical texts of Exodus 21 and 22, which value the life of the mother before the child, evangelicals went in the reverse direction, putting the life of the child first. The Republicans, to strengthen their power bloc, made pro-life central to their platforms. Ironically, from then on, with the exception of Shonda Rhimes’ Grey’s Anatomy, fewer shows and movies dealt with the issue fairly, realistically, or honestly. Deciding to get an abortion did not bring relief (as many women felt). With a captive audience to influence, abortion centered shows dramatize heart-wrenching, monumental, angst-driven horror with painful consequences. The plots moved far from Jennifer Jason Lee’s teenage Stacy, who made a decision about her own body because she had made up her mind about her life.
The Atties and Goldwater not only interview writers, but they also call upon Steph Herold, MPH, to provide information. An award-winning social scientist and reproductive health advocate, Herold provides the facts about abortions. She contrasts them with the charged Republican/conservative propaganda about abortions seen in films like Blonde. As the lead researcher for the Abortion Onscreen program at ANSIRH (Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health), she analyzes depictions of abortion on film and television. Her commentary about abortions on TV programs and films proved eye-opening. She highlighted how the fictional propaganda attempts to shape the public’s attitudes against abortion. In the selected films and shows, Herold discloses the lies and actual pro-life errors that are patently wrong. The Atties supply the statistics at every turn.
An uneducated, undiscerning public
Unfortunately, an uneducated public believes what they see in films and TV shows unless they do their own research. In recent years, from Juno to Knocked Up, we have seen women bowing to attitudes that undermine their own rights. We see this in the “Aww” moment when they decide to have the baby, though it means an upending of the life they wanted for themselves. Interestingly, we don’t see the aftermath of regret and career loss.
One major point filmmakers make, supported by Herold, turns to who most likely gets abortions. Statistics point to women who already have a child, many of them single, but also couples. Not as films depict them from the Upper East/West Side, women of color or women financially challenged who can’t afford a child, seek abortions.
The Atties and Goldwater also include positive critiques of films that turn the narrative away from political lies and the horrors of abortion. They point to this truth. More women die from childbirth complications than in a clinical setting where a state has legalized abortion.
In revealing positive films about abortion, they mention Obvious Child by Gillian Robespierre. The film shifts the narrative to its credit. The rom-com normalizes a character’s choice to have an abortion with agency and support. Ironically, the film didn’t receive much play, whereas a film that twisted and distorted the narrative with untruths (Blonde, 2022) received heavy marketing support. That was the year the hand-picked Federalist Society conservative court, despite their affirmation of stare decisis (settled law) lied on their oaths and reversed the 49-year old Roe v Wade.
The filmmakers provide fascinating data and underscore it with facts and information. They do this in the hope that, as consumers of entertainment, we recognize shows with storylines that are pegged to political agendas and spread misinformation and lies.
For the synopsis of Hollywood Does Abortion see the Tribeca schedule. https://tribecafilm.com/films/hollywood-does-abortion-2026 Look for it on streaming platforms.
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