Surprise! Movies actually do feature abortions

Remember how abortion advocates were cheering a new romantic comedy set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Obvious Child? The film features a girl who has a one-night stand, gets pregnant, has an abortion, and it’s, like, totally romantic. The filmmakers, along with many pro-abortion media outlets, applauded the movie because, according to them, there are just so darn few depictions of abortion in movies and on television. Too many movies feature that pesky pro-life message, they complain.

Except, oh wait – they don’t. Big Blue Wave highlights a study that showed that not only is abortion represented in movies and television, but the majority of plotlines end up with the woman choosing abortion, and not life. Whoops.

310 plotlines were identified, with an overall upward trend over time in the number of representations of abortion decision-making. Of these plotlines, 173 (55.8%) resulted in abortion, 80 (25.8%) in parenting, 13 (4.2%) in adoption, 21 (6.7%) in pregnancy loss, and 16 (5.1%) were unresolved. 13.5% (n = 42) of stories ended with the death of the woman who considered an abortion, whether or not she obtained one.

… Abortion-related plotlines occur more frequently than popular discourse assumes. Year-to-year variation in frequency suggests an interactive relationship between media representations, cultural attitudes, and policies around abortion regulation, consistent with cultural theory of the relationship between media products and social beliefs. Patterns of outcomes and rates of mortality are not representative of real experience, and may contribute to social myths around abortion. The narrative linking of pregnancy termination with mortality is of particular note, supporting the social myth associating abortion with death.

Well gosh, who would have thought that pro-abortion Hollywood put out tons of movies that actually featured abortion? It’s shocking.

Perhaps the issue is that movies that feature abortion storylines aren’t making them lighthearted and romantic enough. Maybe for abortion advocates, the plot shows abortion as being a tragic choice that the woman didn’t really want to have to make. Who knows? There clearly isn’t a dearth of storylines featuring abortion, so it’s difficult to understand what the problem is.

After all, only the most extreme of abortion extremists would argue that abortion should be featured in lighthearted, casual, romantic, fun situations, to show everyone how abortion is, like, totally no big deal. We’re constantly told over and over again that pro-life laws requiring waiting periods and ultrasounds and such are unnecessary because women already understand the gravity of the decision they’re making, that it’s already tragic and difficult enough. Surely, they couldn’t be just making that up because deep down, they want abortion to be commonplace and frequent, right? Abortion advocates couldn’t be that extreme, right?

Except, unfortunately, they are.