Hollywood and Abortion

A blog I frequent, ChurchRelevance.com, recently posted an article about the recent decrease of abortions occurring in America.

The Guttmacher Institute has published findings from a study that discovered that the U.S. abortion rate is at its lowest level since 1974. In fact, the 1.2 million abortions of 2005 were 25% fewer than the all-time high of 1.6 million abortions in 1990. Unfortunately, despite the decrease, roughly 1 in 5 pregnancies still ended in abortion in 2005.

I've found it interesting to note how the general tenor in Hollywood has begun to change in regards to abortion. Recent movies such as Juno, Waitress, and Knocked Up all have dealt with unplanned (and mostly, unwanted) pregnancies, and all three protagonists make a conscious decision against abortion. In the movie Juno, the title character Juno McGuff, even makes a visit to the clinic 'Women Now', ("...because they're helping women, now",) but makes a hasty exit when she learns that the fetus is already developing fingernails. Juno decides to carry her child to term, and makes plans to give it to a young infertile couple.

The other movies I've mentioned have similar stories, with the leading characters keeping their unborn children. These movies have an obvious pro-life slant, and while this may or may not be intentional, it does seem to signal a change in the general mood of Hollywood towards abortion. From another angle, foreign film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is released in American theaters today. This Romanian film (English subtitles) chronicles a horrifying illegal abortion in a dirty hotel room. I've not yet seen this film, (hopefully this weekend), but it is my understanding that it paints a shockingly bleak portrait of the physical and emotion consequences of abortion.

In the three American movies listed above, none of the girls lifestyles are anything you'd want your daughter to emulate, but these films do seem to show the changing tide of Hollywood and its opinion of unplanned pregnancy.