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Hollywood depicting abortions on screen at 'record' levels

Unsplash/Martin Jermberg
Unsplash/Martin Jermberg

Hollywood is depicting abortions “at record levels” more than in years past, according to The New York Times

“You’re definitely seeing more of the matter-of-fact ‘I am pregnant, I don’t want to be, I’m going to have an abortion,’” Gretchen Sisson, a sociologist at the University of California, San Francisco, told the Times about her observations. “And it’s gone way up in 2019.”

Sisson centered her research in tracking abortions depicted in entertainment. Her study showed that halfway through 2019, there has already been 21 on-screen conversations or depictions of termination. In 2018, she found 18 instances and in 2017 there were 34, but she expects this year to surpass that number.

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Below is a portion of her finding:

“In the pilot for ‘Shrill,’ Abby, the single millennial played by Aidy Bryant, professes to feel ‘powerful’ after having terminated her unplanned pregnancy. 

On one of the final episodes of ‘Veep,’ Anna Chlumsky’s pregnant political aide lays into abortion opponents protesting outside a clinic, hollering, ‘I even prayed a little, and here I am.’ 

On ‘She’s Gotta Have It,’ the ambitious Clorinda, played by Margot Bingham, defends her decision to the baby’s father, saying anything she does with her body is her choice. 

Sisson noted that 11 people credited with writing the aforementioned episodes were women. 

“These portrayals, like others on the series ‘Glow’ and ‘Dear White People,’ are a marked departure from how abortion was depicted, or not, in storylines from the ’80s through the early aughts,” she added. 

In the 20th century, storylines involving unplanned pregnancies were often carried to term or lost to miscarriage. Sisson explained that in the rare instance a termination did take place on screen, it was due to psychological or physical problems or death.

“It’s not that today’s characters come to their decisions without deliberation, but that they are decisive and forthright, like Becky, the music executive played by Gabourey Sidibe in ‘Empire,’” she illustrated. “‘My situation is not getting any easier,’ she says at one point, 'but I have decided to terminate.’”

The creators behind the pro-life movie “Unplanned,” Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon, told The New Yorkk Times that they are not surprised by the shift in Hollywood.

“[Hollywood] is run by the left,” Solomon commented. “You won’t see pro-life stories on TV.”

The Hulu series writer for “Shrill,” Lindy West, even made it a trend on social media to  #ShoutYourAbortion, using the hashtag to normalize abortion, telling Page Six that it was one of her chief goals in life.

Another pro-life filmmaker, Nick Loeb, is counteracting the lethal message by directing the upcoming film, “Roe v. Wade.” The film will show the history of "what happened from 1966 through 1973" that led to the Supreme Court's decision declaring existing laws against abortion unconstitutional. 

Loeb has said the pro-abortion movement was orchestrated around deception and it's all historically established despite it being a little-known fact.

When asked by The Christian Post, in a past interview, if he ever worried about being blacklisted in Hollywood for tackling abortion, the “Den Of Thieves” star replied: “I am not important enough in Hollywood to be blackballed.”

During an interview with Fox News last March, Loeb revealed that Facebook had blocked their efforts to promote the film.

“We knew we would have opposition but we also encountered a pouring out of support to the level I have never seen on any film, from free volunteers, free catering, free locations, etc.,” he told CP.

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