The fashion magazine Marie Claire published a piece earlier this year which called for more abortions on film and television, and we’re not reading into this. The piece was literally titled, “We Need to See More Parents Having Abortions in Film and Television.”
The piece argued that “countless studies have highlighted the importance of representation in the media,” and because abortion, which it describes as “a safe medical procedure one in four women (as well as trans men and non-binary people) will have by the time they’re 45,” is no different.
But because some women who have already had children might feel uncomfortable getting an abortion, Marie Claire argues that clearly, the answer is to include more plotlines in film and television that include parents getting abortions, as “accurate depictions of the most common abortion patients, parents, is still severely lacking—to the detriment of mothers” like one woman they spoke with who was hesitate to procure an abortion after having already had a baby.
The piece does not waste any time discussing the viewpoint that abortion itself ends a human life and perhaps shouldn’t be normalized at all, but rather spends a great deal of energy arguing the mind-blowing stance that parents who get abortion deserve more “representation” in popular culture.
As though abortion itself isn’t already glorified by mainstream society as a whole?
“One of the main ways that people learn about information and experiences is through television and film, particularly when it comes to sex and healthcare, given that we don’t have a nationwide comprehensive sexual health education program,” Renee Bracey Sherman, the executive director of We Testify, a group that is, in face, dedicated to increasing “representation” and “visibility” for “people” who have abortions, told the magazine.
She explained that a lack of plotlines that include women getting abortions sadly limit the “imaginations” of audiences.
“The majority of people who have abortions are already parenting, but on television and film, it’s nearly always someone young, white, and wealthy who is trying to avoid parenting. But that’s a very small minority of people who have abortions. This fails those of us who have abortions because it doesn’t allow for audiences to stretch their imaginations, empathize with our fictionalized experiences, and learn something outside of the same stereotypical narrative.”
Erika Christensen, a “patient advocate” for mothers seeking late-term abortion, told Marie Claire how “meaningful” it is to her to see “any representation” that shows how “ordinary” abortion can be for moms.
Moms like those in the films Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, who made decisions to have abortions, “felt important” to Christensen because these women “make those decisions as experts in their own lives. They don’t have to guess, they know how much time raising a child requires, even under the best of circumstances,” she explained.
“That is great to see since society is so uncomfortable with any portrayal of motherhood that doesn’t center martyrdom.”
This last point was made unironically, as she’s essentially martyring women who have had abortions after already having children as somehow suffering because there aren’t enough films and television shows that depict situations similar to their own.
Marie Claire also spoke with television writer Merritt Tierce, who is working on a show that takes place at an abortion clinic and hopes to “normalize” abortion as “just another choice in a wide range of decisions people make throughout their lives,” and those who already have children, as simply another “parenting decision.”
“I think the most radical reconception that needs to happen with respect to abortion, especially parenting people who have abortions, is for people to realize that it can be a serious act of love to have an abortion,” Tierce said. “And for people who have kids, that is the number one decision-making factor. If they feel like they can’t handle another child, what’s driving that decision is the desire to give the children they already have the best possible life.”
What is particularly grievous about this article is that it assumes that abortion is empowering to women and thus, must be depicted more and made to make more women feel comfortable about their own abortions, particularly women who already have had children.
Abortion in any case ends the life of a human baby, no matter who is getting it and at which stage in their life. Women who already have children to raise are no different, although they will have to face the psychological and spiritual damage that so often comes along with abortion while raising the children who have already been born.
Pray for the women and mothers of today’s world…they are faced with so much noise encouraging them to embrace ending the lives of their unborn children as though it is perfectly normal, acceptable, and moral.
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