It’s been a long time now, but I clearly remember the “take-aways” from a panel I was once on at a professional journalism association. There were two.
I was on with the owner of an abortion clinic. She simply made, how shall I say it, misstatements about abortion in general, what her clinic did in particular. When I politely pointed out the errors, you could have heard a pin drop. Lesson: it helps to know what you’re talking about and especially what your pro-abortion counterpart might say and which rabbit trails they most likely will want the conversation to go down.
The other was when somebody said, “No one is ‘pro-abortion.’”
That panel conversation came to mind this afternoon as I reflected further on “Obvious Child,” the “abortion-themed romantic company” which I wrote about earlier today.
Why? Two reasons.
First, if you read most of the early reviews of the movie, what they love most of all about Jenny Slate’s character Donna Stern is that contemplating, joking about, and actually having the abortion has no discernible impact on her. Message? NO BIG DEAL.
Actually, there’s more, come to think of it. Everybody who is informed (including the clueless boyfriend) about the abortion is supportive and the women (of course) have had an abortion of their own. Message? Everyone’s doing it, so NO BIG DEAL.
They—and the many that cluster around pro-abortion sites such as Rhealitycheck.org—aren’t pro-abortion? Really? Read their two-fold message.
Nobody can ever say anything about any abortion, no matter how frivolous the reason, no matter how old the baby is, and regardless if this is the first or the fifth abortion. It’s the woman’s decision. And how can anything be “wrong” when it happens so often? The rebuttal to that 7th grade sophistry is too obvious to belabor.
Second, what is the title an allusion to? Who knows for sure but best guesses are (based on a comment reprinted below and other hints) that it refers to Donna Stern. She is “obviously” a child and therefore (a) it is absurd to pass judgment on her behavior, and (b) she is too young to be a mother.
So, director Gillian Robespierre has it both ways: The Stern character (a foul-mouthed stand-up comic) is too immature to be held accountable; and even if she weren’t a “child,” it would make no difference. Conveniently, the former gives cover, as it were, to the latter.
This afternoon I ran across a review that ran in the New York Daily News, written by Laura J. Vogel. Get a load of this:
But in interviews, Robespierre and Slate clearly anticipate some criticism from the pro-life crowd.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say I have a bit of fear of how pro-life people will perceive it,” says the filmmaker. “However, I think they aren’t going to see the movie anyway, which is too bad, because I wanted to get through as much as I could without judgment.”
Truth be told, such people may not take kindly to a Saturday-night date movie that involves a drunken one-night stand that leads to a woman deciding to abort, without reservation or guilt.
“We wanted to show something that was straightforward — a woman not conflicted about having an abortion,” says Robespierre, 35. “Donna is a character who is not emotionally or financially able to have a child at this point in her life. We didn’t want a conflict about her decision.”
To which Vogel snarkily adds, “No conflict? About abortion? In America? Many still believe that such a decision should come with a scarlet A to sew on your clothes.”
“Without judgment”? “The pro-life crowd”? “A scarlet A”?
Just guessing I strongly suspect that Robespierre is no more worried about the “pro-life crowd” than Vogel is. Like the baby, we are just another punchline to emphasize the message that destroying defenseless life is trivial—so get over it!
Chelsea Garcia is a political writer with a special interest in international relations and social issues. Events surrounding the war in Ukraine and the war in Israel are a major focus for political journalists. But as a former local reporter, she is also interested in national politics.
Chelsea Garcia studied media, communication and political science in Texas, USA, and learned the journalistic trade during an internship at a daily newspaper. In addition to her political writing, she is pursuing a master's degree in multimedia and writing at Texas.
