The A-word in popular media: A plea for help

I've hear mentions of a recent movie called 'Bella', in which abortion is discussed but I am not familiar with it at this point. I'm under the impression that it is very anti-abortion.

The past two seasons of Desparate Housewives have dealt with the unplanned pregnancy of Bree Hodges daughter Danielle and the subsequent plot to disguise it from the neighbours.

There is the Romanian film '4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days', which recently won a couple of awards at Cannes.

There is the documentary 'Lake of Fire' by Tony Kaye (American History X). It was made in 2006 but it is just now getting on the critics' "Best of..." lists. Chronicles the sides of the debate in America.

'Vera Drake' is on the older end, having been released in 2004.

In the show 'Six Feet Under', Claire Fisher has an abortion.

Either this season or last, the show 'Cold Case' had an episode in which one of the guest characters, an amish girl, had an unplanned pregnancy during Rumspringa.

Todd Solondz's 'Palindromes' (of which I was reminded of by this article: http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0804,hoberman,78918,20.htm).

I'm not up on my pop culture from the last year because the TV in Romania is about two years behind but there's a Romanian film 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days about an illegal abortion during communism that just won at Sundance. I don't know if that helps.

On 'Weeds', the son of the main character, 15-year-old Silas, gets his girlfriend pregnant. While he momentarily convinces her that they can raise the baby, she snaps back to reality pretty quickly (she's a good student and wants to go to college etc.), has an abortion and ultimately cuts him off. She ends up coming off in a much better light, while Silas seems whiny, selfish and flat-out dumb.

Abortions: If These Walls Could Talk, The Last King of Scotland (fourth wife goes in for an abortion, but instead gets murdered), Vera Drake, The Cider House Rules, Dogma (abortion clinics in it), and Dirty Dancing.

Unplanned pregnancies: Where the Heart Is?, Meet the Fockers, Fools Rush in, Look Who's Talking, Kill Bill, Friends (Rachel gets pregnant by Ross), Maria Full of Grace, Quinceanera, and Sex in the City (Miranda gets pregnant by Steve).

These are a few but I feel like every movie that involves a pregnant woman, the woman in it does not plan to get pregnant.

LAGlenda

In Prime Suspect 7 (or Prime Suspect: Final Act) Helen Mirren plays a cop who's had an abortion and has to talk about it really openly. It's nicely done.

The WB television show, Everwood, featured in the very first season (episode 21) an episode about abortion - I think the title is "Episode 20". Also, beginning in the second season, an enormous plot line is created through the unplanned pregnancy of Ephram's ex girlfriend, and the events that happen after.

Skins is a UK series airing on the E4 channel, set amongst a group of sixth-formers (students in our final two years of high school). It generally has quite a good track record of addressing serious issues in a way that acknowledges the complexities and does not preach. Episodes 8 and 9 of season 2 deal in part with the unplanned pregnancy of one of the regular teenage characters. Health professionals are shown supporting her right to choose, as are her friends. The drama centres on her apprehension about telling her boyfriend that she is pregnant. I think it's generally a very responsible portrayal that neither demonises nor moralises, but unfortunately a lot of good work is thrown away when the boyfriend dies at the end of episode 9 as the result of a longstanding medical condition. This is actually drawing together some major threads of that character's arc, most of which are not related to the pregnancy, but the resultant melodrama does have the potential to be read as if his death is a punishment of the girlfriend for the "sin" of having sex. I'm pretty sure this is unintentional, but it's there. We've yet to find out whether the character will in fact continue the pregnancy - episode 10, the season finale, airs tomorrow. I believe a DVD of the season will be out shortly.

I have seen Bella and it is an exquisite film. Personally I would not consider it to be a very anti-abortion film. The woman in the film experiences an unplanned pregnancy and is having a rough time in her life at the moment. She decides to have an abortion but then changes her mind at the last possible second. I would say this movie celebrates choice. If you have no seen it, do yourself a favour and watch it. It is an extremely well-made movie (a rarity nowadays).

Saved! is a good film that deals with an unplanned pregnancy, especially an unplanned pregnancy in the Catholic school system.

As someone stated before Degrassi (the old series) dealt with various scenarios of unplanned pregnancy and abortion. They new series has dealt with these issues as well.

Canadian films, Cake and Ill Fated deal with the subject matter. In Cake, one of the characters works at an abortion clinic. In Ill Fated the main characters deal with an unplanned pregnancy within the confines of a small town, though the outcome is morbid (it is an excellent film nonetheless).

That is all I can think of as now, since a lot of the films I know have already been discussed.

In the TV show Reba, a good chunk of the entire show focuses on the eldest daughter that got pregnant by her boyfriend in high school. Her boyfriend had to move in because his parents kicked him out, he married her, and they live with a fairly accepting mother.

There was also an episode of Cold Case (not sure which one, but it is about a teenage murder case from 1998 that was brought up again ten years later) that talks a lot about the sins of premarital sex (from the perspective of Christians) and refrains from educating the students about safe-sex practices. One of the girls in this club for born again virgins has actually been having sex with her boyfriend and she thinks she got pregnant. Another more "promiscuous" girl finds out and tries to tell her that it is normal and ok. The gist of the episode revolves around sexuality being the cause of the "promiscuous" girl's death.

JLM

There have been a lot of references to abortion in recent films. "The Cider House Rules" obviously is an important one. In "High Fidelity" abortion is mentioned as well [if only for 5 minutes].

Just my own take on abortion - contrary to prior posts, I don't think anyone naturally feel "alright" with an abortion or even "comfortable" with it, really. That's quite impossible the way women are wired. I am pro-choice [but anti-partial birth abortion] and I think the media portrays abortion fairly well in recent films and programs.

There was a Law and Order this past year dealing with the pursuit of identifying a "gay gene" in the show a woman was murdered because she was choosing to have a child that might carry the gene. The males in her life wanted her to have an abortion.